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  #21  
Old 13-01-2013, 09:15 PM
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tonybarry (Tony)
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I saw the pic on the SMH page.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/we...113-2cnnz.html

Very bad. Hope the scope survives, and nobody gets hurt.

Regards,
TB
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  #22  
Old 13-01-2013, 09:29 PM
grantch (Grant)
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Wow! Surprised they allow so much bushland around it, but then, you never really expect this to happen
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  #23  
Old 13-01-2013, 09:35 PM
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g__day (Matthew)
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Hope the fire misses everyone and everything important at the SSO
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  #24  
Old 13-01-2013, 09:36 PM
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mithrandir (Andrew)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by grantch View Post
Wow! Surprised they allow so much bushland around it, but then, you never really expect this to happen
SSO is in a National Park. Getting a hazard reduction burn there is near to impossible.

Did you ever visit Mt Stromlo before the Canberra bushfires? Pine plantations all they way up the mountain to the observatories.
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  #25  
Old 13-01-2013, 09:41 PM
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tonybarry (Tony)
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From OICURMT's post,

http://site.aao.gov.au/AATdatabase/met.html

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.

Regards,
Tony Barry
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  #26  
Old 13-01-2013, 09:46 PM
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rogerg (Roger)
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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.

Fingers crossed.
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  #27  
Old 13-01-2013, 09:56 PM
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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?
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  #28  
Old 13-01-2013, 10:11 PM
SpaceNoob (Chris)
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Looks really bad now...
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  #29  
Old 13-01-2013, 10:16 PM
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h0ughy (David)
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hope the damage isnt bad. i feel for those that have lost their property?
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  #30  
Old 13-01-2013, 10:27 PM
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h0ughy (David)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SpaceNoob View Post
Looks really bad now...
out of interest where did you get those views - i am amazed that the power is still on and the telecommunications is still working
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  #31  
Old 13-01-2013, 10:31 PM
gary
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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.
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  #32  
Old 13-01-2013, 10:36 PM
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theodog (Jeff)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SpaceNoob View Post
Looks really bad now...
I used to live in this house, with Rob McNaught next door.

After the Canberra fires they did a lot to reduce fire hazards and fire proof the buildings etc.

Burning off (hazard reduction)in the National Park.... will never happen!
-won't have to now eh!
It was just a bomb waiting for nature to light it.

I wonder where the opponents to reduction burning are now.
I hope they are patting out the kangaroos.
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  #33  
Old 13-01-2013, 10:38 PM
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strongmanmike (Michael)
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Jesus!!

The brand new iTelescope.Net facility is just now having their grand opening up there too, fuuuuu....



We can't lose both Stromlo and SSO

Mike
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  #34  
Old 13-01-2013, 10:39 PM
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mithrandir (Andrew)
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Thumbs down

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."
>
>
> ___________________________________ ____________
> CAS mailing list
> CAS@anu.edu.au
> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/cas
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  #35  
Old 13-01-2013, 10:56 PM
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Scorpius51 (John)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dvj View Post
...

Dramatic to say the least. I think that's the AAT dome in the lower right corner. Sun is saturating the sensor.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/886/ssofire.png
jg
I think that's SkyMapper, not AAT.
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  #36  
Old 13-01-2013, 11:01 PM
SpaceNoob (Chris)
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Image was via CAS mailing list. - no webcam bandwidth was harmed in this post.

Hope all is well, fingers crossed that the most important stuff survives the inferno.
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  #37  
Old 13-01-2013, 11:14 PM
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mithrandir (Andrew)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SpaceNoob View Post
Image was via CAS mailing list. - no webcam bandwidth was harmed in this post.
I got it forwarded from ASNSW.
Quote:
Hope all is well, fingers crossed that the most important stuff survives the inferno.
Brian Schmidt sounds pretty gloomy.
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  #38  
Old 13-01-2013, 11:25 PM
gary
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The last two weeks certainly have been a dramatic start to the year.

Elsewhere, Tibooburra routinely scores a mention on the daily weather reports as
often having had the maximum temperature in NSW on any given day.

Apparently today it was 47.9C there, the highest in 103 years of records.

We were very lucky to get the rain here in Sydney today.

Unfortunately the rain cells on the RADAAR seemed to have missed Coona.
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  #39  
Old 14-01-2013, 12:24 AM
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seanliddelow (Sean)
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"The fire is burning in a north and north westerly direction away from Timor Road and the Siding Spring Observatory" (http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_more_i...738&CAT_ID=684)

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.
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  #40  
Old 14-01-2013, 12:25 AM
gary
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Amanda Bauer's blog

Blog by AAO worker, Dr. Amanda Bauer, including photos and videos.
http://amandabauer.blogspot.com.au/2...ory-fires.html
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