Quote:
Originally Posted by ausastronomer
It would be a brave person who signed up for that. Unfortunately the record of redundancies at the AAT facility over the past 10 years due to funding cutbacks and ownership control changes is pretty appalling.
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Hi John,
However, this particular job offer is for the private for-profit
iTelescope company rather than ANU.
iTelescope are the people who operate the rectangular observatory with
multiple hosted telescopes on piers primarily for schools, colleges and
amateurs.
For example, colleges in the U.S. can perform imaging in classes during
their daytime.
See
http://hosting.itelescope.net/
An organisation called Astronomy Australia Ltd is now the peak body
established to coordinate Australia's astronomical activities both here and
overseas. Essentially a consortium of the universities and I would believe
CSIRO.
See
http://www.astronomyaustralia.org.au/
For decades the AAT had been operated by the AAO, whose headquarters
were at Marsfield in Sydney on the same campus with CSIRO,
but distinctly separate from it.
The AAO not only operated the AAT, but designed and built at times
what was the the most sophisticated observing instrumentation in the world,
such as the robotic spectrographic fibre positioners both for the AAT and
for the big telescopes in Chile and Hawaii.
What was the AAO was then essentially dismantled by the current
government.
As you mentioned, many talented people lost their jobs.
However Rob MacNaught wasn't working for the AAO but his
funding was coming primarily from the United States via I believe
ANU.
Most of the other scopes on the mountain including the Skymapper were
owned and operated by ANU.
The AAT these days is operated using funding from a consortium of
thirteen Australian universities (“the AAT Consortium”), and these
operations are governed by the AAT Council. ANU is the operator for
the consortium.
What was the crack AAO instrumentation team are now part of
Macquarie University .
The moniker AAO has morphed from the original Anglo Australian
Observatory, to Australian Astronomical Observatory once the UK
pulled out and now to Australian Astronomical Optics.
This team is the jewel in the crown for Australia to remain at the
forefront of instrumentation for optical telescopes.
These people are the key reason why ESO have given time to
Australian astronomers in Chile on the big telescopes at a bargain
basement price because in return the team designs and is
actively building some of the complex robotic instrumentation used
on those telescopes.
See
https://www.mq.edu.au/about/about-th.../AAO-Macquarie
New and past instruments :-
https://www.mq.edu.au/about/about-th...e/our-projects
You were sitting next to Lew recently.
Not sure if you had the opportunity
to chat to him about the work they are doing there :-
https://www.mq.edu.au/about/about-th...rie/our-people
