I just got back from Coona last night, spent 7 nights with the hope of visiting the Observatory.
The Observatory was only given the all clear last Thursday and is currently only open for the astronomers, engineers, technicians and tradies. Visitors like myself are still not allowed to go up to the top of the mountain. I was told the visitors centre might reopen in 6 weeks or so.
Their biggest problem was the instability of the top soil surrounding the mountain, due to the lack of rooted trees there is a risk of land slides. in fact just after the fires that had a few day of heavy rain which made this condition worse. Engineers have now given it the OK, but it was touch and go, and the locals were quite concerned that it would not reopen for a long time or ever. Fortunately this will not be the case.
There is also another private Observatory open for visitors a few K's before the AAT called the Warrumbungles Observatory who was not so lucky. His house was not burnt but the shed that contained most of his astro gear was raized to the ground only metres from his residence, luckily the 4 domes in the front yard were unharmed. One dome is used for visitors and the other three a for hire via remote control. Currently not open for business until he gets the power running again..
http://tenbyobservatory.com/ a link to his site.
I took this photograph on Friday, you can see how burnt the entire Siding Spring Mountain is, yet other areas like thie field are green green green, behind me was burnt out forest too.
Oh and that's not a real telescope in the foreground, just someones letter box
love it.
