The comet, named C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring), was spotted at the start of this year (Jan. 2 )by Robert McNaught at the Siding Spring Observatory

Jan 13, 2013 – Yesterday bushfires swept through Australia's Warrumbungle National Park, home to Siding Spring Observatory. The telescopes there appear ...

"The NSW Rural Fire Service did a heroic job protecting the observatory infrastructure, and while over forty structures were lost in the fire, including the astonomers' lodge just hundreds of feet from the telescopes, initial assessments show that none of the site’s telescopes were lost. The impacts of heat, smoke and ash, however, have not been fully determined."

[link to lcogt.net]

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the website for The Siding Spring Observatory is currently down.
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