spacetoday.net: Wildfires destroy Australian observatory

Posted: Mon, Jan 20, 2003, 12:39 PM ET (1739 GMT)
Mt. Stromlo Observatory (ANU)

Raging brushfires swept through a major Australian observatory over the weekend, destroying telescopes and instruments. The fire, part of a series of brushfires around the Australian capital of Canberra, destroyed the Mount Stromlo Observatory complex just west of Canberra in a matter of hours on Saturday. According to the Australian National University (ANU), which operates the observatory, all the telescopes and workshops, along with most other buildings at the complex, were destroyed in the fire. Only the visitors center and two office buildings, which stored most of the data collected in recent years, were spared. Among the items lost in the fires was a A$5 million (US$3 million) imaging spectrograph that had just been completed for the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii. The destroyed telescopes, including 1.3-meter and 1.9-meter telescopes, were being used for a variety of research projects, including a digital sky survey that had just started earlier this month. Overall damage was estimated to be A$20 million (US$12 million). No one affiliated with the observatory was injured in the fire, although the Canberra wildfires overall have claimed four lives. ANU officials said they plan to continue some work performed at the observatory, such as development of an instrument for the Gemini South telescope in Chile, using facilities on the ANU campus, and said they would rebuild the Mount Stromlo observatory facilities. Officials at the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, one of the three NASA Deep Space Network facilities worldwide, are also keeping an eye on the wildfires, which at one point approached the perimeter fence of the complex before passing.