Mount Kent Observatory near

Toowoomba Toowoomba ( , nicknamed 'The Garden City' and 'T-Bar') is a city in the Toowoomba Region of the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. It is west of Queensland's capital city Brisbane by road. The urban population of Toowoomba as of the 2021 C ...

, in the

Darling Downs The Darling Downs is a farming region on the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland, Australia. The Downs are to the west of South East Queensland and are one of the major regions of Queensland. The name was generall ...

region of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, is an observatory owned and operated by the

University of Southern Queensland The University of Southern Queensland (branded as UniSQ and formerly branded as USQ) is a medium-sized, regional university based in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia, with three university campuses at Toowoomba, Springfield and Ipswich. It offe ...

(USQ). It is the only professional astronomical research observatory in the state of Queensland. Mount Kent hosts the four MINERVA-Australis exoplanet-finding telescopes, three SONG telescopes for

asteroseismology Asteroseismology or astroseismology is the study of oscillations in stars. Stars have many resonant modes and frequencies, and the path of sound waves passing through a star depends on the speed of sound, which in turn depends on local temperature ...

and

stellar astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the hea ...

, two 'Shared Skies' telescopes, and a USQ-Louisville telescope. It is also used for teaching USQ students, and is part of a 'Shared Skies Partnership' with the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

Moore Observatory Moore Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by University of Louisville (U of L). It is located on the Horner Wildlife Refuge in Oldham County, Kentucky (USA) approximately northeast of Louisville. It opened in 1978, a ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

History

In the 1980s a dark sky site was established at Mount Kent and used for teaching purposes by USQ. By 2009 the facilities had grown to include three telescopes: the Webb, O'Mara, and Louisville telescopes. The observatory was significantly expanded beginning in 2016 with the establishment of MINERVA-Australis, funded by USQ, the Federal Government, the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

, the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

. It was opened by Minister for Industry, Science and Technology

Karen Andrews Karen Lesley Andrews (née Weir; born 23 August 1960) is an Australian politician who served in the Morrison Government as Minister for Industry, Science and Technology from 2018 to 2021 and as Minister for Home Affairs from 2021 to 2022. She i ...

and USQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Geraldine Mackenzie in March 2019. The asteroid 11927 Mount Kent, which was discovered in 1993, is named after the observatory.

Telescopes

* MINERVA-Australis is an array of four telescopes and a radial-velocity spectrograph for exoplanet science, established beginning in 2018. It is primarily used for ground-based observational follow-up for the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS, Explorer 95 or MIDEX-7) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the ''Kepler' ...

(TESS). The telescope is operated by USQ and funded by the

and a consortium of research-intensive universities in Australia and overseas. * SONG - the Stellar Oscillations Network Group - has a high resolution spectrograph fed by two telescopes, used primarily for asteroseismology and stellar physics. It is part of a network with telescopes in

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. * The Webb Telescope is a Meade LX200 telescope in a fibreglass dome. It is used for student field nights. * The O’Mara Telescope is named after the late Mt Kent Observatory pioneer Dr Jim O’Mara (of the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

). It is a robotic telescope with Meade optics and a CCD camera, and is housed in an octagonal enclosure designed by Jim O’Mara. It automatically serves remote imaging requests from USQ students. * The Louisville Telescope has Planewave Instruments CDK-20 optics as part of the Shared Skies Partnership with the University of Louisville. It is set up for live remote observing. * The FUT (SONG) Telescope has Planewave Instruments CDK-600 optics used as a research and outreach telescope by the Aarhus University and the SONG team. * The USQ-Louisville Telescope has Planewave Instruments RC-12.5 optics as a teaching and research robotic photometry telescope.

Discoveries

MINERVA-Australis was used in the discovery of TOI-257b, a rare 'sub-Saturn' planet lying between super-Earths and giant planets.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Queensland, Australia, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System, Education, Science University of Southern Queensland Astronomical observatories in Queensland Science and technology in Queensland Buildings and structures in Queensland

History

Telescopes

Discoveries

See also

References

External links