on 1/19/03 1:22 AM, Jane Houston Jones at jane@No-Spam wrote:
> I received this sad note from the former pres of the ASNSW, Tony Buckley
> just now. Mojo and I visited this observatory in 2000 while on our
> Australian honeymoon. Pictures of Mount Stromlo observatory are here:
> http://www.whiteoaks.com/Australia2000/pg28.html - just pages 28
> through page 31
We also visited the observatory last July and enjoyed a tour of the 74-inch
dome, which was the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere from the
mid-50's to the mid'70's (it looked like a pre-WW II instrument) and was
used in seminal studies of stellar populations in the Magellanic Clouds in
the late '50's by Bart Bok.
Unfortunately, Mount Stromlo is located practically in the suburbs of
Canberra (which means the bushfires were just at the edge of the capital
city!) - so light pollution led to the establishment of the Siding Spring
Observatory at Coonabarabran
Steve G