Mt John Observatory: the first 50 years

Mt John Observatory at Lake Tekapo is New Zealand's only professional research observatory. It was founded in 1965 as a joint institution of the universities of Pennsylvania and Canterbury, though the American participation disappeared after 1980. Some of the successes of the past 50 years and also the numerous problems that arose are described here. Four telescopes have been established at Mt John, including the 1.8-m MOA telescope in 2004, dedicated to microlensing. Astro-tourism has flourished in the past decade.