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"The third angel
sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a
torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on
the springs of water - the name of the star is
Wormwood." Revelation 8:10-11
 HISTORY
Interest in Planetary Defense at
Learmonth Solar Observatory and by IPS Radio and Space
Services first started in 1995 following a visit to the
site by then Colonel Simon (Pete) Worden, Commander of
the 50th Space Wing of the US Air Force Space Command.
Colonel Worden briefed Observatory
staff on his concept of Planetary Defense and outlined a
small program to evaluate the use of the Learmonth site
for detection and measurement of near Earth objects. The
program was called RDOS for Rapidly Deployable Optical
System. Details of the program can be found at RDOS
installation. The choice of Learmonth for a site was
primarily made on the basis of the high percentage of
cloud free days experienced. A survey conducted by the
US National Solar Observatory measured an average of 78%
cloud free cover, and rated Learmonth second only to a
mountain site in Chile (with 81% cloud free cover) with
regard to this parameter, out of 15 sites surveyed
worldwide.
 Unfortunately,
due to several manufacturing deficiencies encountered
with the telescope system, it was returned to the
manufacturer after a few months. A dome to house the
RDOS was received after this time, and this was erected
on an antiseismic pad. Unfortunately, in the interim,
there was a change of command at 50th Space Wing, and
the telescope was never returned to Learmonth.
On March 22, 1999 Tropical Cyclone
Vance, a maximal class category 5 cyclone swept over the
North West Cape area, producing winds (recorded at the
Learmonth Meteorological Office) up to 277 km/hour, the
highest ever recorded on the Australian mainland.
Destruction of LSO property was minimal, but the RDOS
Observatory had its dome top removed and destroyed.
ACTIVITIES
The majority of Project Wormwood
activities will be follow-up astrometry (position
measurements) that are required to obtain precise orbits
for asteroids that have previously been discovered by
other programs. However, we hope to also engage in some
limited search activity for new asteroids. We will
concentrate particularly on those areas of the sky with
declinations south of -30 degrees.
 Although
the asteroid population outside the declination range
from +30 to -30 degrees is likely to be significantly
less than the area inside this range (i.e. the range
recommended by Spaceguard for NEO searches), it is also
an area less accessible to the major Northern Hemisphere
search programs, and thus offers a southern hemisphere
site a search advantage. If possible, a small amount of
time will also be devoted to asteroid light curve
measurements (photometry) to help increase our knowledge
of asteroid rotation rates. Specific activities will be
posted in the ACTIVITIES section of this web site.
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