Siding Spring Observatory Update
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue53 1–31 July 2024
2dF
Late last year, 2dF started to fail intermittently, causing considerable damage to fibres. The instrument was taken out of service while work on bringing it back to a functional state was occurring. After considerable effort from both current and former and SSO staff, 2dF was brought back to a functional state in early July.
This was a team effort, but there were a few key standout individuals - Rob Patterson, Chris McCowage, Ashley Anderson, and Ned El-Saleh - who spent many hours getting 2dF functional again.
The next step is to make 2dF operational. We plan to do this by late August, when there will be an opportunity to test 2dF on sky.
In parallel, staff at SSO are developing detailed plans to refurbish the instrument. This includes testing new components.
As the schedule for 2024B is published, 2dF will not be available for use by the community until 2025A.
Visit to the Paul Wild Observatory
Some of the SSO team spent some hours at the nearby CSIRO Paul Wild Observatory recently to look around and share ideas and best practice in maintaining and modernising the operations of 30+ year old telescopes. Of particular interest were mechanical maintenance and troubleshooting, plus learning more about refurbishing absorbers (otherwise known as charcoal traps) from their guru, John Wilson, so that we can become more self-sufficient in this area, aiming to do this in-house, which would lead to a considerable cost saving, since these need replacing every 12-18 months.
AAT 50th Anniversary Symposium
50 years ago, on October 16, 1974, King Charles III officially opened the AAT. Since that time the AAT has helped launch the careers of dozens of astronomers both here in Australia and overseas. To celebrate the event, ANU is organising a 50th Anniversary Symposium, which will occur over three days from October 02 to October 04, just before Starfest.
The symposium is now full and we cannot accept any more registrations for the symposium; however, there is still some space at the social events. People can register for the social events via the Symposium website.
Farewell Paula Boubel
Paula Boubel will be leaving us to concentrate on completing her thesis. Paula joined the Observatory in 2022 and was a part time night assistant. She did an excellent job and she will be missed. We wish Paula all the best in completing her thesis, and we look forward to seeing her again at SSO, perhaps as a visiting astronomer.
Chris Lidman, on behalf of the staff at SSO.
Image: At Paul Wild Observatory. L-to-R: Ned El-Saleh, Ian Adams, Zach Smith, Matt Balk and Gerard Hutchinson standing outside one of the 6 main telescope dishes at Narrabri.
