News from Dr. Ralph (aka Nova Tools author)... posted for your info... our thoughts are with you, Dr. Ralph & family!
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To all who have emailed, many thanks,(and to some who may not have heard yet). I'm going to send out a single message to everyone, but we are definitely grateful all your messages individually. To some waiting for some work related stuff, I'll get back to you as soon as possible 
If there is anyone you know who might be interested feel free to forward this for me.
(brief for the OS people)
Bushfires are burning around (and through) Canberra, and the first hit was on Saturday when the whole western side of the ACT burned. Mt Stromlo Observatory has been destroyed, and other Astronomers have lost homes. We are in Fisher and are presently fine. The fires are still threatening the northern part of Canberra )
(end brief)
We went through a reasonably interesting time in our street on Saturday (18th Jan) and Sunday (19th Jan), but no houses were lost to the fires in Fisher and we are all OK. I saw my first (and hopefully last) firestorm tornado from 800m away (200m + high and sounded like dozens on freight trains heading towards us) as Chapman (the next suburb) exploded. The fire generated winds flattened a large tree about 500m away and there was roofing material flying around us as we went for the car to leave. The storm blew itself out quickly though, because it ran out of fuel at the end of the ridge behind Chapman and so we didn't leave our house in the end - partly because a much less frightening fire had Fisher largely surrounded anyway After the tornado, the more local problem of the grass/gumtree fire over the back of our neighbors across the road was relatively easy to cope with, and we continue to defend against any spot fires until the danger had passed (Some hours). A 1.5km line along behind the row of houses across the street from us was successfully defended by the local people, with buckets and hoses - the big guns were needed more elsewhere in Canberra at the time. The fire was stopped at the fenceline, 60m from our house.
For those with the Canberra UBD maps, map 77 shows were we were, and everything green on the map is now black and we are surrounded by a very substantial firebreak
I spent a long night patrolling and putting out small burning stumps and such like out of spite at much as anything.
We have just got power back (Tuesday 21 afternoon) and we can stop 'camping at home' and have showers and things. Phew!
Mt. Stromlo was devastated. All the telescopes were destroyed, the admin, library, domes, design office, mechanical, electronic and optical workshops and most of the residences, including the big directors home are just burnt out shells.
Amazingly the astronomers office block and lecture theater were spared in one of the strange unburned patches that occur from time to time, and my office was essentially intact, just a little charred at the edges.
With the support of ANU and a whole bunch of other institutions we will be rebuilding the Research School and workshops, maybe even better than before. Different sure, but it is also a chance to start fresh for the new century.
We may not build a new telescope on Mt Stromlo, but we may build a new one at Siding Springs near Coonabarabran so that some major survey projects which will be delayed may in the end be even better than originally planned.
I was on holidays and was due back at work on the 20th, so it still seems sort of weird and a bit distant, I was last at Stromlo just before Chistmas, and now it isn't really there anymore...
Ah well...
Finally, we now have networking and a computer system on campus downtown that looks like the old one to the outside world, so my old email and so on will work. Thanks for all the messages, it all helps a little, and I am now going to have a good hot shower and start thinking about what to do next.
Cheers
Ralph
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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
Some people's minds are like cement: all mixed up and permanently set...
