The Creation of the Anglo-Australian Observatory

by S. C. B. Gascoigne, K. M. Proust, M. O. Robins, Paul J. Wild, Sir Robert Wison

Overview

This book is the official history of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), which was built at Coonabarabran in New South Wales beginning in 1968; it came into operation in 1974. The telescope is part of the Anglo-Australian Observatory which provides facilities for research in optical astronomy for scientists from Britain and Australia. Between them, the authors of this book were all involved in different capacities throughout the development of the telescope. As such it gives a detailed and personal record of the scientific, administrative and political developments from the moment negotiations began to the present day. The AAT has been and continues to be an outstanding success and can lay claim to being the best instrumented telescope in the world with a very wide capability and high sensitivity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521353960
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/29/1990
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	6.85(w) x 9.72(h) x 0.79(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword; Preface; 1. The scientific background; 2. The technical background; 3. The campaign for a large telescope: aspirations and realities; 4. An Anglo-Australian agreement; 5. Site, dome and building; 6. Optics and tube; 7. Mounting, drive and control; 8. Telescope or observatory?; 9. The beginnings of the observatory; 10. Commissioning; 11. The UK Schmidt telescope at Siding Spring Observatory; 12. Some achievements of the AAT; 13. Political winds of change; 14. Towards the next century; Appendices.

Editorial Reviews

"...well-researched detail of debates about how the observatory would be run, how autonomous it would be, how observing time for locals and visitors would be allocated, where the instrumentation and maintenance groups would be located." Choice

"... will be of interest to those who worked to create, and who have worked at the observatory. It will also doubtless provide policy makers and future historians with material and pointers..." Science

From the Publisher