Southern Cross Outreach Observatory Project (SCOOP) was designed and built as Australia's first purpose-built mobile observatory in 2016. It remained engaged in the public outreach astronomy in remote Australian communities from its inception in 2016 through to 2019 for 4 years in a row until its remote operations were halted by the pandemic. We resumed our activities again in 2023 by returning to the roads for public outreach astronomy at Woomera and Andamooka. With arrival of spring in 2023, we hope to travel to new destination, carrying the enthusiasm of looking at the skies from an observatory to the remote Australian communities.
In its 7 years of operation, our mobile observatory travelled through South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales to conduct public outreach astronomy in distant communities. Built for endurance and long distance travel, it has clocked nearly 12,000 kilometers on Australian roads since it first rolled out on the road.
Port Augusta