Uppsala-Schmidt telescope structure and dome shutter operation

Abstract

Built in 1955, this dome housed a 20/26-inch Schmidt telescope under the operation of Sweden's University of Uppsala. The telescope developed more than two thousand photographic plates of the Southern Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds and in October 1957 captured the first astronomical image of Russia's Sputnik1. With Canberra's light pollution affecting the quality of images, the Schmidt telescope was relocated to Siding Spring Observatory in 1981. At the time of the 2003 firestorm, the original red-brick Uppsala dome was being used as the headquarters of the Canberra Astronomical Society. The damage was so extensive that the ruins were subsequently demolished.