SSO Director's update

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue64 1–31 July 2025

Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) and the Australian Astronomical Telescope (AAT) are in a new era as of July this year, which means little change in practice. SSO has a new director, still called Chris much like the previous director, and as if to make a point about names there is an additional deputy director, which, although this is a newly created role, also called Chris (Wolf & Onken, respectively). 

Past and current staff from the observatory said farewell to the previous director, Chris Lidman, at a celebration held at The Coona Club in Coonabarabran on Thursday 26 June. Chris started as inaugural director in 2018, when the AAT was handed over to the university sector to operate in the context of government funding shifting to the current strategic partnership with ESO. Speeches by former Astronomer-at-Large, Fred Watson, as well as the old and new Chris' and various gifts marked the occasion and created more damp air in participants’ eyes than we would ever want in the AAT dome. One of the gifts, a model of the AAT itself (see picture), ensures that Chris (Lidman) will never be without a decent telescope to play with.

The Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources made a gift to the Australian optical astronomy community by continuing to co-fund the AAT for two more years, with $1.5 million per year from July 2025 to June 2027. This funding completes the AAT budget, on top of $2.4 million from the University sector, and had materialised only at the 11th hour. We should all be very grateful to SSO staff for hanging in there with their jobs seemingly bound to terminate on 30 June this year, during a prolonged hiatus in the process. A process is underway to determine how the AAT could be funded until the end of 2028, with universities having already pledged their side of the funds.

Among the frequent, key maintenance activities at the AAT, essential WHS certifications are needed prior to aluminising of the primary mirror, scheduled for November. Ably supported by the mechanical team, these activities were carried out by Modern Project Solutions (based in Townsville) last week. Careful scheduling ensured that the telescope was simultaneously available for nighttime observing.

Christian Wolf

Image: The 3.9m AAT in front of its former Director.