Canberra lockdown: How ACT scientists are doing their research from home

The next, you're helping your young child make slime for a school science experiment.

It's just some of the realities of lockdown for some of Canberra's leading scientists and researchers.

Australian National University astrophysicist Dr Brad Tucker is just one of many Canberrans working from home during the lockdown.

While he may not be able to go to his regular office at the observatory high atop Mount Stromlo, Dr Tucker said he was still able to gaze into space from the comfort of his couch.

"We have had the benefit for a while to do remote observations from the telescopes," Dr Tucker said.

"Essentially you're staring at a computer screen logged in to the control computer displaying things with a fancy remote.

"It's set up so you can monitor the telescope and the camera and the building, as well as the weather and other things that could go wrong."

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As well as being able to carry out observations remotely from observatories in the ACT, Dr Tucker has also been spending time conducting work out of the Siding Springs observatory in Coonabararan in western NSW, all from his home.

Despite the Covid restrictions, his research on observing supermassive black holes has been able to continue.

"They're big black holes that are millions of times larger than the sun and they kind of pulse and swallow up gas and stars," he said.

"You're looking for their echoes so you know how to look for them and then you monitor them.

"I've been able to do that from the couch and computer screen at night and then wake to help home school my seven and four-year-old. The biggest thing is the transition between astrophysics research and then helping to homeschool."

In many instances, scientists and researchers have been able to carry out work remotely, despite using specialist equipment, during the lockdown.

While there was a bit of a transition process during the first lockdown in 2020, Dr Tucker said the shift back to remote research had been a lot smoother the second time around.

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Most scientific staff have still been able to work from home, but there have been some essential staff who have been going to areas like the Mount Stromlo Observatory in person since the outbreak began.

"There are a small number of people who rotate and go up to the site and make sure that everything is running smoothly and make sure that all the engineering and maintenance is going well," Dr Tucker said.

"The last lockdown allowed us to know what would be the bare minimum number of people to help keep the site going, and since then, we haven't missed a beat."

Although no one knows yet how long the lockdown in the ACT will last for, Dr Tucker said systems were in place to make sure important scientific research could still be done.

"There is one benefit to this in that it has made the research a lot more accessible," he said.

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