With the establishment of the Kuala Lumpur National Planetarium in 1994 together with the strong media coverage, support of the space programmes, the active role of NGOs especially astronomical clubs and the restructering of astronomy subject in the primary and secondary schools to include space science, the awareness of the Malaysian public, especially the young generation of the importance of space science increased.
Consequently the demand for astronomy as a subject of study and the number of student who wants to further studies at the graduate level also increased. Profesional Malaysian astronomers indicated that the basic infrastructure for astronomy was increasingly neseccary. With the establishment of the National Space Agency of Malaysia (ANGKASA) in 2002, a plan was made to develop an observatory with robotic telescope system that could be remotely controlled through internet. This observatory is known as the Langkawi National Observatories of Malaysia that consists of a telescope for night sky objects observations and a solar telescope for solar observations.
The objective of these observatories is as below:
- To facilitate interested parties to do an astronomical research;
- To equip the country with the basic astronomy infrastructure;
- To enhance and attract the Malaysians to understanding the space science for the benefit of the country; and
- For astronomers around the world to use the observatories for studies on the equatorial sky.
Location
The National Observatories of Malaysia is located at Bukit Malut Reservoir Dam, Langkawi Island, Kedah, at the Northern part of Malaysia. It is developing in a forest-restricted area.
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