Observatory at Heights school in Adelaide's northeast, involving students in astronomy, shut down in 2018

The observatory built by parents in 1988-89 at The Heights School at Modbury Heights in Adelaide's northeast suburbs, had involved the school's STAR Group students in astronomy in both theory and practice.
Images courtesy The Heights School

The Heights astronomical observatory (also known as Adelaide Observatory) at The Heights School in Modbury Heights, a northeast suburb of Adelaide, ceased operating in 2018 after 30 years.  

A STAR Group of students at the school had learned astronomy at an advanced level, both in theory and practice, through the observatory.  

In 1988-89, the first section of Emanuel Papaelia Observatory (named after the science teacher who championed having the observatory at the school) was built by students' parents. It had  a 1963 vintage 12’ Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain reflecting telescope belonging to the Astronomical Society of South Australia and originally housed at Marryatville (formerly Norwood Boys) High School.

In 1996, a second building with a roll-off roof (the Ingham Family Rooms) also was constructed by parents. This had a secondhand 10” Meade LX-200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope – replaced in 2011 by a 14” Meade LX-200 GPS-ACF, bought with a grant from South Australian government education minister Jay Weatherill and topped up with fundraising from the STAR Group. The observatory also housed a portable 10" Dobsonian, a 90mm computerised SkyWatcher refractor and two Coronado solar telescopes.

In 2012, the Heights School bought a research-grade 12.5" space-certified Ritchey-Chrétien built by Optical Guidance Systems. That replaced the 14" LX200 in the roll-off-roof building and, in 2012, the 14" LX200 was installed in the dome, in place of the old ASSA 12" Dall-Kirkham that was moved to the Astronomical Society of South Australia’s Stockport Observatory for storage.

In 2011, a Year 12 student at The Heights used the original 10" LX200 and an 8bit DMK camera to detect the transit of an Exo planet as his SACE (South Australian Certificate of Education) research project.

Bimonthly, on the Friday night nearest the first quarter moon, the Astronomical Society of South Australia held viewing nights when members of the public could visit the observatory to view the night sky through the observatory's telescopes along with telescopes brought in by society members. Members of the school’s STAR Group showed the public real-time imaging on their research grade OGS telescope and through the 14" LX200 in the dome and the portable scopes.