Siding Spring Observatory

High on Mount Woorat in Warrumbungle National Park, New South Wales, Siding Spring Observatory is one of Australia's premier optical astronomy sites, hosting the Anglo-Australian Telescope and dozens of other instruments above the town of Coonabarabran.

About Siding Spring Observatory

Siding Spring Observatory is owned and run by the Australian National University (ANU) as part of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, continuing the legacy of the Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories research school. More than 60 telescopes are sited on the mountain, built and shared by ANU, the University of New South Wales, and other institutions, with equipment on site valued at over A$100 million.

Telescopes & research

The best-known instrument is the Anglo-Australian Telescope, a workhorse of Australian optical astronomy for decades. Alongside it sit facilities run by other institutions, together making Siding Spring one of the busiest multi-telescope research sites in the Southern Hemisphere, though not every instrument on the mountain remains operational today.

Location & getting there

The observatory stands 1,165 metres above sea level on Siding Spring Mountain, inside Warrumbungle National Park near Coonabarabran in New South Wales, Australia. The park's dark, dry inland skies are part of what makes the site so valuable for astronomy.

Visiting Siding Spring Observatory

Siding Spring welcomes day visitors to its visitor precinct, though exact opening hours and tour arrangements change, so it's worth checking the observatory's official website or Google before setting out, especially if you're planning to combine a visit with exploring Warrumbungle National Park.

See your named star from here

With so many working telescopes on one mountain, Siding Spring is a fitting place to imagine your named star being found: every star named through star-register.eu comes with real coordinates that a telescope here could, in principle, be pointed toward. Explore our star catalogue or see our naming packages to name one of your own.