UWA observatory

The University of Western Australia's on-campus observatory sits in Crawley, Perth, giving students and visitors a foothold in astronomy just minutes from the city centre.

About UWA Observatory

Alongside its campus-based facility, the University of Western Australia also operates the Zadko Observatory, roughly 80 kilometres north of Perth at the Gingin Gravity Precinct, a 4.7-hectare bushland research site established in 1998.

Telescopes & research

The Zadko Observatory's centrepiece is a 1.0-metre f/4 robotic telescope, donated by James Zadko and commissioned in 2008. It's the only metre-class telescope with deep-imaging capability between the east coast of Australia and South Africa in the Southern Hemisphere, and the precinct also hosts a node of OzGrav, the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery.

Location & getting there

UWA's main campus sits in Crawley, on the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia, while the Gingin Gravity Precinct lies in bushland to the north, chosen for its darker skies away from city lights.

Visiting UWA Observatory

Public access varies between the campus rooftop facility and the Gingin site; check the University of Western Australia's research pages or the Gingin Gravity Precinct's visitor information for current tour and event details.

See your named star from here

From a robotic metre-class telescope to a rooftop facility on campus, UWA's observatories show how far you can push a set of sky coordinates. If you've named a star, its right ascension and declination could be located from a site like this; see more examples in the catalogue.