ABOUT MAPLETON OBSERVATORY

The Mapleton Observatory group comprises 4 amateur astronomers. who will gladly show you the night sky, while two of our members run a Cosmic Kids Club through the Mapleton School for students from Years 3 to 7. The children all have a great time and come up with some very curly questions. Our experience varies from months to donkey's years, and we have a couple of people who are taking college degrees in this subject. The one thing we all have in common is passion!

What we do, where we are, & how we got started

• We're situated at the Mapleton School in the Blackall Range in the hinterland of Queensland's Sunshine Coast. (Click here for map)
• We have an 14" inch Celestron automated telescope on an ASTRO PHYSICS 1100 GT Mount housed in a 4 mtr fibre glass rotating dome.
• We also have a 12" Dobsonian
• Plus a 10" Dobsonian.
• Once a month we hold an Open night [usually on the first quarter .
• The Observatory is open for bookings outside of these dates.
• Mapleton Observatory has been in operation since 2002, starting out as a school centenary project. The Education Department wanted community involvement, so after a well-attended meeting a committee was formed. The Observatory took one-and-a-half years of fundraising and another year to build. All the work was done by volunteers within the local community on Saturday mornings. Numerous businesses and individuals helped us out, both with materials and labour. We would like to thank you all for your support (you know who you are), because without you it would have taken us at least another year or two to complete.
• The Mapleton schools involvment is a Cosmic Kids night once a term for an hour and a half.
• However the Obsevatorys volunteers have been opening for the public for 16 years in which time thousands of people (other schools, Scout groups, and the general public) have benefited from the facility for a nominal 5$ each. all monies saved have been used for maintenance and upgrades such as the new $14000 Astro physics go to mount.

Further information is available by contacting Lainie & Adrian Adams, email adelain1@bigpond.com, telephone 07-54761183. Or visit our "Bookings " page for more details.