Mount Stromlo Observatory - since 1924
Canberra has been home to an observatory for all of its history. Within
nine months of the proclamation of the Federal Capital Territory on 1
January 1911, astronomers from Melbourne had installed the 9-inch Oddie
Refractor on the summit of Stromlo in order to site-test the mountain.
World War I intervened, but the campaign to create a national observatory
was taken up again at its conclusion, with Walter Geoffrey Duffield as the
chief driving force. The Commonwealth Government gave final approval in
1923, and Duffield was appointed as the foundation Director of the new
Commonwealth Solar Observatory on 1 January 1924. Thus 1999 marked the 75th
anniversary of our founding.
Much has happened in the following three quarters of a century. In
1957 the Observatory became part of the youthful Australian National
University, and now enjoys full Research School status. In the 1960s the
ANU opened an entirely new site at Siding Spring, which has developed into
one of the world's leading international astronomical centres - home to the
3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope, and several other major instruments.
Most important of all, however, has been the scientific output of
the Observatory in the last seventy-five years - achievements such as:
the solar research, including the monumental Stromlo compilation of
some 2700 Fraunhofer line strengths, and the unravelling of the nature of
the solar corona;
- the early extragalactic research, which led to the discovery of the
Local Supercluster, and which established the Magellanic Cloud cepheids as
a fundamental stepping stone in setting up a distance scale for the
Universe;
- the 1959 74-inch observations of 30 Doradus, which yielded the
first information ever obtained on the chemical make-up of anything beyond
our Milky Way;
- the stellar astrophysics of the mid-century decades, which made
such notable strides towards an understanding of the chemical evolution
going on within our Galaxy;
- the dynamical studies, which have shown how important a part
mergers between galaxies play in their life histories, and how a large
fraction of the mass of the Universe is simply invisible;
- the famous MACHO Project, which has provided evidence that some, at
least, of this 'missing mass' consists of very faint, low-mass stars; and
- recent work using the foremost astronomical facilities in the world
(and in space) to build up a comprehensive picture of the structure and
distance scale of the Universe itself.
Mount Stromlo continues as an active observing site, as the
headquarters of our operations, and as the centre of our internationally
renowned Graduate Program. We are extremely proud of all that has been
achieved here since 1924, and we look forward to
even more illustrious accomplishments in the future.
Photos
Click on images for larger versions.
These pictures were taken at the Mount Stromlo Observatory 75th Anniversary Ball held at the Hyatt Hotel, Canberra on Friday November 12, 1999.
The MC for the evening was John Doyle - Roy of "Roy and HG".
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John Doyle and Colin Keay (Skeptics)
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Prof. Robin Stanton presenting Miss Joan Duffield with a
gift in appreciation of her endowing the Duffield Chair of
Astronomy & Astrophysics
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