The 24-hr sensor data from the AAO (first block of three graphs) tells a real story. Outside air temperature over 100 degrees at 4:30pm, inside temperature rose about ten degrees, mirror stayed constant.
We still have a telescope. Great bit of engineering. Not many places could survive that.
Watching this very closely hoping for the best. I think every observatory in Asutralia is in a vulnerable position with regards to fire just because of the nature of the location requirements.
I wonder what other areas of the SSO site have been damaged. The AAT dome is huge so to affect it at at means a pretty big fire. I wonder where the outside air sensor is positioned, low to the ground or right on top of the dome?
Just been talking to a friend who works for the AAO.
The place was evacuated so nobody should be up there at the observatory but
he suggested that if the webcams and meteorological telemetry was still
streaming it meant that the generators had probably kicked in OK and were powering
them.
Judging by the Faukes Telescope South webcam images posted above, looks as if there are spot fires
around the astronomer's lodges.
Request from RFS. Please do not view any of the SSO webcams. Limited bandwidth is making it hard for them to keep tabs on the situation.
I've deleted the image. It was one of the ones in Chris' post.
Quote:
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Jessica <crystalsinger@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [CAS] Siding Spring.....
> Date: 13 January 2013 10:08:17 PM AEDT
> To: CAS <cas@anu.edu.au>
>
> Hi folks,
>
> The rural fire services are requesting that people don't load up any of the SSO webcams as the large number of people accessing them are making it difficult for them to keep tabs on what's going on. There's limited bandwidth to the cameras. Please pass this request on to any of your other astro connections.
>
> Latest reports seem to indicate that several buildings in the complex are on fire, and it's reported that sources within RFS believe that the damage to SSO is 'significant'. It's not clear yet whether any of the domes/telescopes have been destroyed yet.
>
>
> Jessica
>
>
> On Sunday, 13 January 2013, Kimberley Rawlings wrote:
> not looking good...........
>
>
>
> From Brian Schmidt " I maybe spoke too soon about Siding SPrings, here is a picture a few minutes ago "
>
> " Things are not great at SSO as shown in this photo taken at 9:09pm AEDT from the Faulkes Telescope site. Lodge Appears to be burning to the ground - although it is hard to be sure."
>
>
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I'm hoping this is true, as it would be a real loss for astronomy worldwide if the telescopes were lost. I hope everyone out there is ok at the moment.
