A beginning in the bush -- A bush observatory -- Caretaker -- Second World War : the observatory becomes an optical munitions factory -- The change master -- The astronomical godfather -- A life on the dome floor -- An astronomical entrepreneur -- An instrumentalist and the MACHO project -- Masters of the universe -- Bushfires and a new beginning -- Stromlo fellows and a Nobel Prize -- Brian Schmidt's Nobel Lecture 2011 : accelerating expansion of the universe through observations of distant supernovae
Summary
This book tells the story of the Mt Stromlo Observatory in Canberra which began with W.G. Duffield's idealism and vision in 1905. The Observatory began life as a government department, later becoming an optical munitions factory producing gun sights and telescopes during the Second World War, before changing its focus to astrophysics - the new astronomy. In the ensuing years programs were introduced to push the Observatory in new directions at the international frontiers of astronomy. The astronomers built new, better and larger telescopes to unravel the secrets of the universe