Mt. Wilson Observatory facilities spared

The vicious fires in California had threatened Mt. Wilson Observatory and other facilities this past week or two. The focus was on the old observatory and command public concern. That's good but understand that more importantly was a complex of communication and broadcasting towers that would be more devastating than the loss of an observatory. But, happily, all fears came to an end.

"Mt. Wilson Observatory Saved From Fire, Others Not So Lucky"

by

Alexis Madrigal

September 4th, 2009

Wired

A massive 150,000 acre fire burning near Los Angeles has been threatening the Mt. Wilson Observatory for the past week, but the historic site where astronomers first proved that there are many galaxies in the universe has been spared, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

“The Observatory grounds are in the best possible shape, the firefighters remain determined and in position, and we expect to survive this unless the approaching fire obtains far more aggressiveness and complexity than it now presents,” wrote observatory director, Hal McAlister, in a public update earlier this week.

In other good news, the Stony Ridge observatory, a smaller outpost six miles northeast of Mt. Wilson built by amateur astronomers in the early 1960s, also survived the blaze.

But other major scientific outposts haven’t been so lucky. Observatories, by virtue of their often remote locations, are particularly vulnerable in fire prone areas. Firefighting help can be scarce.

Most notably, the Mt. Stromlo Observatory outside Canberra, Australia, lost five telescopes during a 2003 fire. New Orleans research laboratories were devastated during Hurricane Katrina. In 1997, the High-Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy observatory on the Canary Island of La Palma was partially destroyed by fire. Just last month, a fire broke out on the same island, which is now home to the monster new Gran Telescopio Canarias.

It’s not just astronomical observatories that face fire hazards, either. In 1994, a fire tore through the Pinon Flats Observatory, which makes geological observations on the San Andreas Fault.

“What worked was that the fire crews are amazing in terms of saving structures,” said Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the University of California, San Diego. “They didn’t know what the stuff was, they were just doing what firefighters do which is save structures.”

Even so, a vacuum pipe through which the scientists run a laser beam to measure land deformations on the fault line collapsed. It was a year before the observatory was back at full strength.

Even for institutions that are closer to help, like the Chabot Space and Science Center in the Oakland hills, fire abatement is a constant struggle.

“We’re all positioned in pretty critical areas. Surrounded by conifers, and unfortunately, up here, eucalyptus. All kinds of stuff that goes up like a Roman candle,” said Dean Sparks (no relation to fire), head of operations at Chabot. “The typical recommendation is 30 feet of defensible space. We’re at 100 feet minimum and we’re trying to push that out now. We’re increasing the amount of defensible space between us and the Monterrey pines and the eucalyptus, which is a big part of the battle.”

The Wilson Observatory itself has been hounded by fire multiple times over the past half century. In 1935, a fire broke out nearby but “175 men aided by four pumper crews brought it under control,” The New York Times reported. Disaster was averted again in 1953 when The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Men and machines, alerted to a dreaded shift of wind, were massed atop Mt. Wilson last night to fight back flames which could destroy the observatory, hotel and television towers on the peak’s summit.”

The situation repeated itself again in 1957. And again in 1965 when flames came within 300 feet of the institution. In 1979 another blaze lit up nearby. Skirmishes broke out earlier this decade over the maintenance of the institution, particularly the Forest Service’s management of pines in the area.

So, while fires near Mt. Wilson aren’t exactly unknown, what was different this time around was that thousands of astronomy fans could follow the fire’s approach via the observatory’s webcam. The image at the top of the post was the last one taken — and it sure didn’t look good for the station. As it turned out, most of the smoke was from controlled backfires set by firefighters, which made the situation look worse than it was.

Many major scientific institutions have been destroyed, but rarely in public circumstances. Eurasian science, particularly in Slavic regions, took a beating during World War II.

“At the end of the war, the Soviet delegation at Nuremberg formally declared that during the occupation the Germans had destroyed 334 institutions of higher learning and 605 scientific research institutes,” wrote historian Pamela Spence Richards. “Of its library holdings they estimated that over 100 million volumes had been destroyed.”

In a note published in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada describing the destruction of the Simeiz Observatory in Crimea, C.J. Chant wrote, “Astronomers of Canada and the United States may well have a thankfulness that the observatories in this western world have not been in the path of invading armies.” Axis armies looted the observatory and when a fire broke out in the main building, the German commander let it burn to the ground.

Nowadays, much of the data from scientific institutions is stored somewhere “in the cloud” or can be backed up and shipped out. It’s no longer precious, but the institutions like Mt. Wilson Observatory that produced the data provide a material record — physical data — about the methods of science. That’s valuable for scholars, present and future.


6 years later and Mount Stromlo Observatory reopens

"Visit to an observatory or planetarium?" poll

6 years later and Mount Stromlo Observatory reopens

Perhaps you remember the terrible Australian fires of 2003 that demolished most of the Mount Stromlo Observatory complex.

On July 13th, 2003 Penny Sackett, Director of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, wrote:

The fires destroyed much of our infrastructure, but left our most important asset intact - our people,....

The day after fires, we committed to restoring Stromlo and its network of facilities as a pillar of Australian science.

Three weeks after the fires, our staff were back at work on the mountain, working in two office buildings which were largely undamaged.

We can not and we should not reconstruct a carbon copy of the old Stromlo. This new design is overwhelmingly oriented around meeting the needs of staff, students and visitors - while also ensuring Stromlo retains its status as an internationally important observatory.

For decades, Stromlo and Siding Spring have been operated as integrated observatories, combining the virtues of a control base close to ANU, close to the nation's capital and accessible to the community with a primary observation base offering optimal astronomical and climatic conditions.

The new design retains telescopes and the research hub at Stromlo, but provides even stronger integration with the University’s Siding Spring resources, ultimately providing a more powerful research facility for Australia.

PLANS UNVEILED FOR THE NEW STROMLO

Part of Mount Stromlo Observatory has been rebuilt.

"Eye of Mount Stromlo rises from the ashes"

by

Yuko Narushima

May 26th, 2009

The Sydney Morning Herald

UNRAVELLING the mysteries of the skies will be made easier for scientists worldwide by something of a $13 million phoenix.

A giant telescope was unveiled yesterday, an improvement on equipment lost to Canberra's bushfires six years ago.

The Skymapper is the country's first new optical research telescope in 25 years. It will be used to create a digital map of the southern skies, using detailed pictures taken over the next five years.

The telescope will be based at Siding Spring Observatory near Coonabarabran in NSW and research will be shared freely with scientists overseas via the internet.

The Minister for Science and Research, Kim Carr, said the Skymapper added to Australia's impressive capabilities in astronomy. "It is fantastic to see Mount Stromlo reborn as a centre for internationally significant astronomy after the horror of the 2003 bushfires," he said.

Supporting space science helped people to understand their place in the universe and inspired technology that improved lives, he said.

The lead scientist on the project, Professor Brian Schmidt, said astronomers would use data retrieved by the telescope to make new discoveries. "Everything from dwarf planets like Pluto in our solar system to the first black holes in the universe," he said.

The project began in 2002 when the Australian National University applied for a grant to survey the southern skies using a telescope at Mount Stromlo. Only 18 days after it won the grant, a bushfire ripped through the observatory in a blaze that claimed four lives and destroyed hundreds of homes.

The telescope is also Australia's most sensitive digital camera and can take snaps of a patch of sky 25 times larger than the full moon.

Professor Schmidt called it a "268 megapixel behemoth" with sensitivity 5 million times greater than the human eye.

Space sciences and astronomy projects received $160.5 million in the last Federal Budget, including an $8.6 million pledge to create a Space Policy Unit.

Wikipedia gives this historical outline...

The observatory was established in 1924 as The Commonwealth Solar Observatory. The Mount Stromlo site had already been used for observations in the previous decade, a small observatory being established there by Pietro Baracchi using the Oddie telescope being located there in 1911. The dome built to house the Oddie telescope was the first Commonwealth building constructed in the newly established Australian Capital Territory. Until World War II, the observatory specialised in solar and atmospheric observations. During the war the workshops contributed to the war effort by producing gun sights, and other optical equipment. After the war, the observatory shifted direction to stellar and galactic astronomy and was renamed The Commonwealth Observatory.

The ANU was established in 1946 in nearby Canberra and joint staff appointments and graduate studies were almost immediately undertaken. A formal amalgamation took place in 1957 with Mount Stromlo Observatory becoming part of the ANU.

On January 18, 2003 the devastating Canberra firestorm hit Mount Stromlo (which is surrounded by a plantation pine forest) destroying five telescopes, workshops, seven homes and the heritage listed administration building. The only telescope to escape the fires was the 1868 15-centimetre Farnham telescope.