Mount Stromlo Observatory

The Mount Stromlo Observatory ( MSO; Mount Stromlo Observatory) is one of the oldest astronomical observatories in the southern hemisphere. It is operated by the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University and is on the 770 meter high Mount Stromlo, about eleven kilometers west of the center of the Australian capital Canberra.

The observatory was founded in 1924 initially as the Commonwealth Solar Observatory (CSO ). Since 1911, a permanently installed telescope had found there. The domed building on this telescope was the first built by the federal government in the Australian Capital Territory building. From 1946 investigated here employees and students of the Australian National University in 1957 and reached the observatory into possession of this university.

While in the 1920s and 1930s focused on the solar physics in the center of interest, entered the observation of stars and galaxies in the foreground after the Second World War. For this purpose a reflecting telescope with a primary mirror diameter of 1.88 meters was built in 1953, which was to remain for more than 20 years the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. Due to the increasing the proximity to Canberra light pollution the Siding Spring Observatory was established in 1965 as a branch of the MSO. The Mount Stromlo but remained the seat of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the telescopes remained in operation.

On 18 January 2003, the MSO was largely destroyed by devastating bushfires. Almost all telescopes, workshops and buildings were destroyed by fire. In 2004 the reconstruction began. While many buildings had to be demolished, was the historic building of the CSO are preserved. In the course should at Mount Stromlo two modern telescopes are built, and in the newly constructed Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre instruments should be developed and built for large telescopes around the world.