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From the Director: back home on Stromlo!

11 February 2003

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I write to share with you the good news that the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA) at the ANU is back on Mt Stromlo, only three weeks after the devastating and horrific Canberra bush fire that demolished much of the observatory on the mountain. Today was the first official day of our return and we are very glad to be home.

The dedicated and continual efforts of Mt Stromlo staff, ANU personnel, and the people of Canberra, have made this miraculously speedy home-coming possible. During a period when all of Canberra was reeling from the effects of the fires - which took four lives and over 500 homes - the community of ANU and wider Canberra rallied to secure the site, assess the damage, repair and restore damaged electrical power, water and telecommunications infrastructure to Mount Stromlo, and prepare the two largely spared academic buildings (the Duffield and Woolley) for our return. Donations and loans from within the ANU and across the city have provided the extra computers and chairs we required to provide every Mt Stromlo student and staff member with a small (shared!) office space on the mountain. I would like to also express our gratitude to Australian institutions and industries for their cooperation and to those astronomical institutes here and abroad that have made offers of telescope time and library assistance.

We have been busy. The New Cosmology Summer School, co-sponsored by RSAA and ANU Physics, is in its second successful week. RSAA and University planning groups have been established to help chart the course of the rebuilding process that will lead to a new, and stronger, Stromlo. The University is aiding all ANU staff and students who have lost their homes in the fire, including those at RSAA, to find suitable replacement housing. Temporary office space is being acquired to accommodate our Stromlo staff more comfortably on the mountain while new facilities are being constructed. Technical staff are steadily working on the Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager instrument, a recent competitive award to the RSAA; no delay is expected on that international project. A recovery plan for the Gemini Near infrared Integral Field Spectrograph, lost in the fire, is being drafted. Staff scientists are re-engaged in their research, making alternate plans for those projects curtailed or delayed by the fire, and laying plans for possible new observational facilities at our Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories. PhD students are busily preparing for new observing runs, analysing data previously acquired, writing up research results, and planning for their midterm exams.

The speed with which our return to the mountain has been accomplished is an indication of the dedication and determination that will carry us forward into the future. We are aware of the great challenges and the great opportunities that await us, and are meeting them with a renewed spirit and sense of purpose.

Sincerely,

Penny D. Sackett
Director
Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and
Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories

ANU media release dated 11 February 2003

Open letter from the Director dated 27 January 2003