Stardome Observatory

Stardome Observatory is a public astronomical observatory situated in Cornwall Park in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland.Founded in 1967, the observatory is administered by the Auckland Observatory and Planetarium Trust Board. The Trust Board was created by the Auckland Astronomical Society in 1956. The Stardome Observatory is also home to the AAS.FunctionsResearchIn 1969, the observatory constructed a UBV photoelectric photometer with assistance from the University of Auckland. This photometer on the Zeiss telescope became a very successful instrument and produced a significant number of published research papers. Probably the most important discovery was the phenomenon of "super-humps" in the SU Ursae Majoris class of cataclysmic binary stars in 1974.In 1988, the observatory participated in the discovery of the atmosphere of Pluto by measuring the brightness change as the planet passed in front of a star.During the 1980s the Zeiss telescope was used to support several doctoral students from the University of Auckland, including the development of a new computer-controlled photon counting photometer. Regular UBV photometry of variable stars continued until 1998 when a CCD camera was first used.