As mentioned previously, we lived in Canberra for ten years. We visited the Mount Stromlo Observatory a few times. We decided to visit to see what had changed.
What we had forgotten were the devastating fires that ravaged the Stromlo Forest in 2003. Many of the original buildings and telescopes were severely damaged and unrepairable. These have been left onsite as a sort of memorial to the earlier generation of astronomers that used this facility. The intensity of the fire is all to apparent when you look at the melted equipment that has been left onsite.
The site is still used as a education facility for the Australian National University while all the larger telescopes are located in Coonabarabran. See our visit here. There are new, smaller telescopes but they are not in areas as easily accessible to the public. There is a new Visitor Centre but we arrived on a day it did not open.
Visiting the site brought back memories of the old telescopes and I was quite sad seeing the remnants. Not sure I want to visit again. At least someone has a sense of humour, (the graffiti).
Gum trees and Galaxies 