James Short was interested in astronomy at an early age. He was given a temporary appointment as being ‘in change of the Photographic Telescope at Sydney Observatory’ on July 3, 1890. 

Six years later he became the permanent NSW Astronomical Photographer. However, the night skies over Sydney were becoming increasingly polluted with the smoke of innumerable cooking fires and a decision was made to construct a smaller observatory in Pennant Hills, where at the time, the air was unpolluted 

The branch of the Sydney Observatory was constructed on a five-acre triangular piece of land at the junction of Pennant Hills Road and Beecroft Road and was on the boundary of the two suburbs. 

The observatory building was a small hexagonal structure on a concrete base about 25 feet in diameter with a sliding roof opening to allow movement of the telescope rotating dome and a cement floor. 

A six-room timber cottage next to the observatory was home to the family. 

A galvanised iron fence surrounded both buildings which were situated on the highest and most level site of the Red Hill Reserve. This was the north-eastern corner and today a small plague marks the spot where the observatory once stood.

Short worked long hours photographing the night skies. He took some part in affairs of the community giving an address on his work to the Beecroft Literary and Debating Society in 1905 and in 1910 he wrote to the local newspaper concerning a comet. 

In 1909, he showed 40 pupils from Beecroft Public School, which his sons attended, the salient features of the night sky and gave them much interesting information, then offered prizes for the best essays on what they had seen.   

In 1919, he gave another lecture in Beecroft on ‘the Heavens Above’ and showed some fine photographs. By then he was a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. 

Short continued with his work completed the cataloguing of the southern skies about 1930. However, when Short was nearing retirement the branch observatory was closed. 

As there was a lack of government funding to pay for a successor and the increasing vibration and light from passing traffic the Red Hill Observatory was closed the astrograph moved to the city and Short and his family moved to a cottage in Bellamy Street. 

When Short’s published report of his work appeared in the 1960s, with more than a million star positions recorded on the Star Catalogue, it was given international acclaim. 

Short had taken many of the 1400 photographic plates associated with the preparation of the astrographic charts.

The old buildings of the observatory became derelict and were finally pulled down and removed by Council. 

Following Short’s retirement in 1930, the telescope was returned to Sydney Observatory. 

The reserve was named Observatory Park to remember the 32 years of the important scientific work carried out there.