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Siding Spring Observatory

A University Owned and Operated National Facility

 

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The Siding Spring Observatory (SSO) is the premier facility on the Australian mainland for optical and infrared astrophysics research. It is located in the Warrumbungle Mountains near Coonabarabran in northern New South Wales. For more information on its open, merit-based access policy, see RSAA's Observing web pages.

 

The site and observatory is owned, operated and funded by the Australian National University. For the past 10 years, however, the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) at the ANU has run SSO as an open-access National Facility, giving its Telescope Time Allocation Committee (which includes non-RSAA astronomers) the brief: "To optimize the scientific return for Australian astronomy of the ANU telescopes on the basis of the scientific merit of proposals."

 

The true National character of the observatory is demonstrated by the origins of the users of ANU telescopes at Siding Spring. Indeed, Table 1 shows that the ANU share of time has been steadily dropping while the share of time used by other Australian astronomers has been increasing. The two are now approximately equal.

 

Table 1: Origin of Chief Investigators using ANU Telescopes at SSO 2002-2005
CI Institution	% Nights in 2002	% Nights in 2003	% Nights in 2004	% Nights in 2005
ANU	58	53	48	41
Non-ANU Australian	16	22	37	39
Foreign	26	25	15	20

 

SSO telescopes are also used by post-graduate research students (Table 2), with a considerably higher proportion of these students coming from non-ANU Australian Universities than from the ANU itself.

 

Table 2: Higher Degree Students using ANU Telescopes at SSO in 2002-2005
Institution	Total Number	% of Total
ANU	21	26
Non-ANU Australian	34	42
Foreign	26	32

 

In addition to existing facilities, the ANU is currently constructing the $11M 1.35m SkyMapper facility, which will survey the whole of the southern sky and provide the complete digital database as an international resource.

 

SkyMapper will be among the first of a new breed of surveying telescopes which are able to scan the night time skies more quickly and deeper than ever before. The telescope will provide a deep digital map of the southern sky, allowing astronomers to study everything from nearby objects such as asteroids in our solar system to the most distant objects in the universe called quasars. The data taken by SkyMapper will be shared with astronomers around the world via the Virtual Observatory initiative, so that every possible use can be made of this resource. The telescope will come on line in early 2007 to conduct this multi-colour, multi-epoch survey of the southern hemisphere.

 

Via a DEST $5.6M Systemic Infrastructure Initiative grant, ANU is also installing new instrumentation on the 2.3m telescope and installing a fast internet link which will benefit, not only the SSO telescopes, but also the other facilities that share the mountain top (the Anglo-Australian Telescope; the University of NSW Automated Patrol Telescope; the ROTSE telescope of UNSW, Los Alamos Labs and the University of Michigan; the Siding Spring Survey of University of Arizona, ANU and NASA; the Faulkes Telescope Project for Astronomy Education; and the Korean YSTAR telescope).

 

The ANU is proud to be able to provide this national leadership and to provide this site which has resulted in so many internationally proclaimed research results. The recently-released Decadal Plan for Australian Astronomy, New Horizons, documents that 10% of all citations of Australian astronomy (the highest cited discipline in Australian science) come from work on ANU's telescope facilities. Over the years, the ANU has provided the telescopes and their maintenance, maintained the site on which they and other telescopes on the mountain sit, provided documentation and first-night assistance to observers, regardless of their institution, operated at a Lodge for visiting observers and a Visitor's Centre for the visiting public, and technical support for observers and on-going instrumentation upgrades.

 

At present, the operational costs of SSO telescopes are not supported by the government in a direct sense. When the ANU's Institute of Advanced Studies entered the Competitive Grants Scheme, its block grant was taxed by about 20%. As a consequence, the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, which operates SSO, has substantially less money to operate the national-access facility, and this, combined with rising costs, have already necessitated changes that could compromise scientific results. In partnership with Australian users from all institutions, RSAA is currently seeking the additional sources of funds necessary to prevent placing the quality of work that can be undertaken by Australian researchers in further jeopardy.

National Strengths of the ANU Siding Spring Observatory

 

1. World-leading science: Ten percent of all citations of Australian astronomy are based on work undertaken by national researchers using ANU telescopes.

 

2. Large benefit-to-cost ratio: Estimates indicate that SSO telescopes equal the highest ratio of citations per dollar spent on operations of any other astronomical facility in Australia.

 

3. A tradition of open, merit-based access: For ten years, ANU astronomical facilities have been open to all based on peer-reviewed applications by a committee composed of members across Australia. About 40% of the use is already by non-ANU Australian users.

 

4. Building on a national strength: Facilities at SSO are distinct from those at the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), offering Australian researchers a cost-effective suite of instruments that do not duplicate those of the AAO. They are necessary via preparatory work to reap maximum advantage from more expensive facilities such as Gemini.

 

5. Leveraging existing infrastructure: On the order of a $A50M capital investment has already been made in ANU SSO infrastructure, most of it by the ANU, but recently a substantial amount of $A5.6M in the form of a DEST Systemic Infrastructure Grant.

 

6. Researcher development: The large uptake of SSO observing time by postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers in Australia contributes significantly to the development of a continuing user base in Australian observatories and universities of optical and infrared facilities worldwide.

 

7. Technological development: Researchers from ANU and other Australian universities test technological solutions at SSO telescopes, building intellectual technology and engineering property that can then be used on other telescopes here and abroad.

 

8. Model in research collaboration: For years, SSO has satisfied the principles the recently-announced National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme (NCRIS), and is a model for University-owned, nationally-accessible research infrastructure.

9. Maximum efficiency: Site recoveries are already applied, and the Anglo-Australian Observatory and the SSO share facilities where appropriate to achieve maximum cost effectiveness. (With rising costs and declining purchasing power of University resources, this in turn means that external funds will be required to maintain and extend services at Siding Spring Observatory.)   10. Support from the Decadal Plan for Australian astronomy: The recently-released New Horizons document stresses (pages 28, 29 and 41) that a long-term, sustained means must be found to support University infrastructure, such as SSO, that benefits a broad, national base.

From New Horizons: A Decadal Plan for Australian Astronomy 2006-2015