Parkes Radio Telescope Open Day

[den]

Parkes Radio Telescope
Originally uploaded by battyden

"It is 200 feet in diametre, weighs 1000 tons and can aim at any point in the sky."

"What's it doing in a bloody sheep paddock?"
Open Day at The Dish




The view from the Cafe. I sat at table 2 and had a steak and Guinness pie. The best pies with the best view.




People on the Azimuth Track


Time a new class of pulsar.


Under the 500 ton counter-weight


The Azimuth Track, drive wheel and main bearing. The hydraulic controls operate jacks that can lift the dish off the track to a height of 2mm




Down through the centre.


The cable wrap, which is how the telescope can rotate 450 degrees without twisting the fibre optics.


And it's in a sheep paddock. The small cube building houses a hydrogen maser atomic clock. The small telescope is decommissioned, but was used in early long base-line interferometry experiments that were helped design the 5km long multi -dish array at Narrabri. In the background is the Goobang Range. On the right, sheep paddock.


Control Room. The colourful LCD monitor is the modern telescope motion control console.

Comments

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

You know, until you get some people in the picture, you don't quite realise what a bloody monster that is..!

That's on my list of "things to see & do before I die".