Stromlo Observatory

Saturday evening, 8 PM, August 7

Last Wednesday morning, frustrated by a discovery that my new camera is not at home in San Francisco, I called United in Sydney. I was astounded that they had my camera securely under "lockup" and would hand it off to a courier. I paid $50, and got my camera back Thursday night, just in time for a trip up to Stromlo Observatory on Friday with Catherine and her friend Tricia. Leave it to me to learn more about the outdoor environs around Canberra before the city of Canberra itself.

Map of Australian Capital Territory

Stromlo is ANU's official observatory located due west of city centre, as you can see from the map. Canberra, being the seat of Australian government, has its parliament building surrounded by pomp and ceremony enclosed by a circular roundabout, just to the south of Lake Burley Griffin (on the map in the upper right corner). It sits about ¼ of the way south into the ACT (Australian Capital Territory, like a Washington DC). The remaining ¾ of ACT are suburbs and rural areas, marked by farmland, ranches, the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve and the Namadgi National Park. The park abuts the Brindabella Mountains to the northwest (seen in the picture), on the edge of the "Snowy Mountains" where Canberrans go skiing. Before European settled in 1830, the region was inhabited by the Ngunnawal, Walgalu and Djimantan Aborigines.

A wildfire of massive proportions devastated the ACT, parts of New South Wales, the National Park and the preserve in the summer of 2003. Started by lightning, three wildfires combined to form one massive firestorm, caused 2 deaths and destroyed 500 homes, not to mention park and nature preserve buildings and the Stromlo Observatory. All buildings except the main observation telescope itself were brought to the ground. The observatory, as you can see from the photo, seems to be up and running again.

The next few pictures show a 180 degree view and gives us a wonderful view of Canberra. This picture, looking northeast, shows the Telstra Tower on Black Mountain. City Centre is to the right toward Lake Burley Griffin. Moving toward the right shows additional suburbs and a flavor of the land once covered by dense forest, all lost to the 2003 fires. What you see is reforestation over the past 7 years.

Friday afternoon I meet with my advisor and research group at the ANU and listen as a departing doctoral student outlines the basics of her doctoral dissertation for the two newcomers, myself and Angelika from Austria.

Angelika is a post-doc Chemist, intending to work with a specialized coating she developed in her doctoral work. I will be starting my work with Sudha, a theorist in the group who is working on nano-arrays on silicon substrates. Angelika and I are asked to tell everyone where we are from and why we have come to work with Kylie our lead advisor, and group convener.

More pictures here.