I don't know how much coverage this has received overseas, but bushfires have been burning in and around Canberra over the last 24 hours. Apart from two people being killed and something like 400 houses destroyed, I understand that the Mount Stromlo observatory on the outskirts of Canberra has also been destroyed. I shudder to think of the value of property destroyed and work wrecked. I also hope the Tidbinbilla Tracking Station is okay.

Does anyone have any links to live satellite images of the Canberra region (lat 35S, long 149E)? Landsat, or something like that? 36 hours ago, the fires were well to the south of the city. The next thing they were all along the western fringe of the city, threatening suburbs along a 30 kilometre front. I'm curious to know the path by which they spread.

I went to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology site. They've got satellite imagery there, but it's pretty wide-angle (a la GOES), evidently without sufficient resolution to pick out the wildfires.

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"... to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." - Tennyson, Ulysses

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ToSeek on 2003-01-18 21:03 ]</font>

Things do not look good:

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/curr...icle_848_1.asp

Things are in fact pretty horendous!! Read on:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...911267055.html

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...911270928.html

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/20...911272068.html



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: steve_remington on 2003-01-19 22:59 ]</font>

On top of the lives lost and the utter devastation of the countryside there, this is simply awful. So many broken lives there...

... and I just had another dark thought. I wonder how long it will take Mark Hazlewood to claim that this was done on purpose, to shut down the observatory? It's his style, and he has claimed other observatories are being shut down to hide Planet X.

Man, I hesitate to even mention this here. But to have him dancing on the grave of that fine old institution... well, let's hope there is a bottom to his pit.

One positive thing was that they were able to get back some of the computer data they had on some hard disks that were not damaged. I hope that they can rebuild the telescopes.

The lives lost were horrible. I just hope that the fires were not started by a idiot and his cigarrete like many here in Florida were. Arrggg...

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GIYUL :-)
"It takes Thousands to fight a battle for a mile, Millions to hold an election for a nation, but it only takes One to change the world." - Dan Sandler 2002

This is truly a devastating loss. Not just to the Australian astronomical community, but to the world astronomical community. I would hope that astronomers everywhere would take a lesson from this: Back up your data at a remote site. Hardware can be rebuilt or replaced, but much of the data is irretrievably lost. While objects that were observed last year can be observed next year, they cannot be observed last year again.

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

I was up at Stromlo only a couple of weeks ago, buying a book and video at the Exploratory. I parked pretty much where that photo of the ruined dome was taken.

If it's any consolation, the fires started as a result of lightning strikes in national park to the south of Canberra, and spread through country which is tinder dry as a result of drought.

... and the answer is, one day. Although, it wasn't Hazlewood, it was Tuatha (I talk about him on my SOHO anomalies page). I expect Hazlewood will pick this up soon enough.

Amazing.

Why would the Australians set 400 homes on fire and kill 4 people and an observatory when there are hundreds around the world that will be able to see Planet X and not just this one. It makes no sense. If they were really that worried about PX than they would suddenly destroy all observatories around the world and not just one.

One question does come up in my head: According to him PX is coming no matter what. So what if the Govt. wants to hide it from us. If PX will destroy the world, knowing about it before hand will do nuthing to prevent it.

Why let the public know about their impending destructuion and let riots succumb nations? Looting, killing, and other forms of bad and evil things will happen because the world will end in a few months. The populace will go crazy. Think Orson wells times 6 billion. IT would be good for the Govt. to hide this type of thing from us. While killing people and destroying homes would not be good , he is possibly doing the world a greater disservice by inciting violence and murder.

Now this is all just my imagination going wild here folks. It is utterly stupid that PX is coming and the fact the he blames this wildfire on a govt. coverup is horrendus. At least he could of waited for the mourning period to be over to scream his delusions at the Australian Govt. for it.

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GIYUL :-)
"It takes Thousands to fight a battle for a mile, Millions to hold an election for a nation, but it only takes One to change the world." - Dan Sandler 2002

Well, I applaud your diplomacy. But can we call it what it really is?

It's disgusting!


Eeks! I had an even scarier thought. I'm reading a book right now called Don't Let Jerks Get the Better of You, and in it is described three types of j**ks - 1st degree who don't mean to do harm but inadvertantly do, 2nd degree who intend to manipulate and use others but feel remorse and tend to be "trapped" in the behavior, and nth degree who are like 2nd degree but feel no shame or remorse for their behavior. A note that was brought up: in psychology, there is a principle that people tend to project on others their own bad behavior. So, a person who is heartless in their dealings to achieve their goals tend to be the first to accuse others of such activity.

If Tuatha is such, then God convict him!


My prayers to the Australians down there. [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_cry.gif[/img]

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"As I lay beneath the Southern Cross, the stars tell more than I could" . . . David Meece

Out of interest, where does this Tuatha say this? I'm interested in discussing the matter further with him.

Phil:

I hate to play the roll of the guy who says I knew it all along but...

I have been working in the engineering field for 24 years. In that time I have learned that you cannot over estimate the power or impact of stupidity.

I present as my proof:

Murphy's Law:
Anything that can go wrong will.

Duncan's corrillary to Murphy's law: At the worst possible time in the worst possible way.

Russ' corrillary to Murphy's law: Anything that can't go wrong will. (to wit, 3 mile island)

Russ' corrillary to his corrillary: When you go to fix it, you'll have a headache and have to go to the bathroom.

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It's just one of those damn things of which there are many few. -- Dan Blocker

[quote]
On 2003-01-23 10:21, Peter B wrote:
He says it here. You have to be a member of his newsgroup to read it, or have someone who is send the message to you.