Mt Burnett Observatory
From relic to renovation, an observatory is saved from the dozer
A defunct university observatory gets a new life as home to Australia’s newest astronomical society.
It’s been nearly three years since
Mount Burnett Observatory went
from being a dusty, unused university observatory to the vibrant home of
one of Australia’s most active astronomical societies. It all began with a
leap of faith.
Monash University was looking to permanently close the Observatory they
had built forty years before on the top
of Mount Burnett in the Dandenong
ranges to the east of Melbourne.
The observatory was built in the age
before computers and its instruments
have not been updated since. Like
Puffing Billy, the steam train that
chuffs through the nearby hills, it
looked to be a relic of a bygone era.
When the original lease finally expired
in 2011, Monash was going to remove
the telescopes and shut the Observatory doors forever.
That’s when the magic happened.
Knowing what was afoot, a handful
of chums with a passion for astronomy scraped together enough money to take over the telescope lease.
14 SwitchOn
Then we put out the call to the local
community for help. And how the
community responded!
People came from all over Melbourne
to donate money, to help clean and
scrub away years of dust and cobwebs, and most importantly to restore
the big telescope to its former glory.
Many of our members are keen
astro-photographers so watch our
website and Facebook page for their
latest efforts.
Oh and how did the story end? Well
it hasn’t yet…. the Observatory has
been saved, and is there for everybody to enjoy.
Pretty soon our membership had
grown to over 100 and we were the
third largest astronomy group in the
state.
Most of our new members join because they have an interest in astronomy but never have looked through
a telescope themselves. Very quickly
we have them looking through one of
our many small telescopes and planning to buy their own.
Over two and a half thousand people
have now taken their first look at the
stars through an eyepiece at Mount
Burnett.
Our group meets every Friday
night, and on the second Saturday of
James is a former professional
astrophysicist who now works as a
mathematician for NAB. He is the
outreach officer for Mount Burnett
Observatory and the father of five
budding scientists.
each month we run our Young Observers group for our growing group
of under 18s.
Listen to James’ podcast