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Australia's Iconic Parkes Telescope Turns 50
angry tapir writes "It is rare for a piece of scientific equipment to hold a place in a nation's heart. But 'The Dish' — the CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope — has in its 50 years come to mean a lot more to Australians that just a complex piece of technology. The telescope is a 64-meter diameter parabolic dish used for radio astronomy, located about 20 kilometers north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales — about 380 kilometers west of Sydney. It even has its place on the Big Screen, immortalized in the 2000 movie, The Dish. Opened on 31 October 1961, the telescope is perhaps best known to Australians for its role in the 1969 moon landing. On 8 and 9 October, the CSIRO will throw open its doors to the Australian public in celebration of its 50th anniversary."
Much easier to retrieve the ball.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
More than half of currently known pulsars were discovered by the Parkes Observatory.
That is commendable. Should have been part of summary.
hilarious
First thing that came to mind was Aborigines gathered around a bonfire, playing the didgeridoo as John Glenn passes overhead, specifically Parkes being part of the tracking network since the Mercury Program. But it seems that no, the historically correct stations would be Honeysuckle, Tidbinbilla, Muchea and Carnarvon.
Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty
What in the world does this have to do with the male penis. Come on /. try o stay on topic. If it doesn't deal with the male phallus, government, fags, or how stupid and bigoted everyone from the south is, it does not belong on /..
Brian Schmidt's Nobel Prize may add or at least secure new or continued funding. Nobel Prizes tend to make politicians softer. Which is good, of course! :)
Here is an article about Brian http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/10/05/3333015.htm
-1 non-intelligible
I know, don't complain about lack of options, but sometimes I wish /.'s moderation system had better resolution...
Its great that it was there for some ground breaking radio astronomy work, the Apollo 11 landing, but that is also continues to provide good scientific data!
I'm sure the core receivers and computer systems have been replaced/upgraded a dozen times over the years, but I'd bet some old engineer on site probably still has the original vacuum tube signal processing gear sitting in a back room.
Tip of the Fozzies to ya.
Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy, Oi, Oi, Oi!!!
"Murderer? Well, that's a harsh word. I prefer to think of myself as a Mortality Technician."
I have a soft spot for this telescope. The Dish is one of my favourite, feel good movies. Happy birthday Parkes!
When I went to Australia a few years ago one of my must sees was The Dish. I got a good deal on a one-way car rental from Melbourne to Sydney and went exploring.
The people at Parkes showed me a very good time. They were mapping pulsars in the Large Magellanic Cloud when I was there. I had my first naked-eye view of Alpha Centauri and the Southern Cross from the plane, but had my first decent view of the Eta Carinae region from St. Kilda Beach in Melbourne. The Magellanic Clouds had to wait; I first saw them from the countryside near Echuca, Victoria.
I stayed a couple of nights in Forbes, NSW, which played Parkes in The Dish. Parkes itself is all strip malls and fast food joints now, and it would be difficult to make a movie set in 1969 there. As an astronomer I hit Coonabarabran and drove up to Siding Spring. As a fan of aussie TV I hit Barwon Heads (Seachange) and saw Goat Island (Water Rats) from one of the harbour ferries.
I spent an afternoon at the public library a few years ago and was amused to see The Dish (then under construction) as a feature article in Sky & Telescope the month I was born.
...laura
The Parkes Radio Telescope has discovered about half of the known pulsars, was instrumental in getting clear broadcasts from the moon, and has played an important role in studying the sky in the hemisphere of the southern cross. So grab a cold one, put a dog on the barbie, and stick your chest out till your buttons pop! Good on ya!
"It is rare for a piece of scientific equipment to hold a place in a nation's heart."
I can think of at least one other similar example; the site at Jodrell Bank is pretty popular in the U.K., especially in the local area. It's a well-visited tourist spot and there was quite a lot of news locally when there was a possibility of it shutting down a few years back.
I just got back from visiting The Dish today. I had a peek at their computer systems. They have a mixed environment of Windows 7 and Linux (probably Red Hat, judging by the icons). They were running Xfce and IceWM. They obviously weren't too keen on GnomeShell.