Australia Telescope Compact Array Open Day

[Parkes1969]

Hi everyone,

The Australia Telescope Compact Array, near Narrabri is hosting an open day to celebrate its 25th birthday on Sunday 1st September 2013. This is a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes of one of the most powerful radio telescopes on the planet. We have lots planned for the open day including: antenna tours, control building tours, astronomy talks, and other family activities. More information is available here - http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/public/open_day/2013/

We are also planing a public optical telescope viewing night, at the Observatory, on Saturday night 31st August with a handful of our professional astronomers. Request for clear skies... submitted.

Feel free to contact me or the observatory for more information.

Cheers,

Chris
chris.hollingdrake@csiro.au

[jjjnettie]

Thanks for the heads up Chris.
I doubt if I'll be able to attend, but I will share the link on my FB page. :)

[Parkes1969]

Very much appreciated :)

[AstroJunk]

Fantastic - I swung by the visitors centre a couple of years back and it's a great place to visit. I'll see if I can make it down/across :thumbsup:

[astroron]

Sounds like a crossword puzzle Jonathon ;):lol:
Yes it is a good place to visit,I have been there a couple of times:)
Cheers:thumbsup:

[Parkes1969]

Fantastic. great you might be able to make it out this way. Feel free to let any else you might know about the open day. Its looking like it might be one of our biggest yet.

We've made a couple of major upgrades to the telescope's back end in the last couple of years that we'll be letting people see.

[Parkes1969]

We've confirmed that we will be holding a public viewing night on Saturday 31st August at the observatory. We've picked a nice dark spot along side the telescope and close to one of the antenna. The attached image was taken by Robert Kerton near where we will set up. We'll have a handful of our professional astronomers and technical staff running the night. A great opportunity to mingle with some experts, ask questions and share stories. The skies around Narrabri are some of the darkest in Australia and viewing conditions 'will' be near perfect:)

Time - 6:30-9:30
Location - Paul Wild Observatory, 25km west of Narrabri

[Camelopardalis]

Sounds great Chris! Do we need tickets or just roll-up?

[Parkes1969]

No need for tickets. Just roll up. We are expecting a big crowd, so probably best to arrive earlyish.

[Camelopardalis]

Great - thanks Chris! Hopefully I'll make it up there :thumbsup:

[Parkes1969]

For anyone who is thinking of making the trip out to the Compact Array open day and viewing night, camping at nearby Yarrie Lake is a great option. Yarrie Lake is about 5-10km away from the observatory and is a beautiful campsite. Also the lake itself is thought to be the result of a meteorite impact. I was out there about three weeks ago and it looks fantastic.

[Parkes1969]

Have a look at this great time lapse of the Compact Array.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hawK5JwVfY&feature=share&list=UUak3NZxjNnWip327vYL8RLA

[AstroJunk]

No dogs :mad2:

Looks like a nice place to day trip to, I'll certainly pop there.

[Parkes1969]

A few nice stories on the CSIRO Universe blog about the Compact Array.

Reasons we love the ATCA - http://csirouniverseblog.com/2013/08/29/reasons-we-love-the-atca/

ATCA's silver jubilee - http://csirouniverseblog.com/2013/08/26/atcas-silver-jubilee/

That pesky H2O - http://csirouniverseblog.com/2013/08/14/telescopes-under-water/

[AstroJunk]

I've made it as far as Goondiwindi! Any other IISers coming to play? the sky is superb :)

[Camelopardalis]

Leaving shortly, hope to make it by sun down :D

[iceman]

Ripper image Jonathan!

[AstroJunk]

Thanks Mike, and it was lucky I made something of the Qld sky - it's cloudy in Narrabri. Not that it effects the radio telescopes - I'm tempted to build one myself :)

[Parkes1969]

Thank you to everyone that turned up today, we have a great time. Over eight hundred people made the trip out to the observatory today to help celebrate its 25th birthday. I hope everyone enjoyed their visit. If anyone has any photos of their visit Please share them here.

I'll be driving back up to Brisbane on Tuesday, as I've now relocated there and hope to meet some of the local astro community up there shortly.

Cheers, Chris

[AstroJunk]

Here's one :)

[AstroJunk]

And some happy snaps...

[Parkes1969]

Fantastic work. Stunning skies tonight.

Sorry to interrupt your work when we put the lights on briefly, we needed to prepare for our formal event tomorrow night.

Thanks for sharing.

[Camelopardalis]

Thank you and to everyone involved Chris! Had a great day out :) only just got home but worth every km of the drive.

Btw, another great pic Jonathan, shame it was cloudy last night :( another (local) visitor we were chatting to said it was the first cloudy night in 2 months!

[iceman]

Great pic again Jonathan! Sounds like it was a great day.

[Camelopardalis]

A couple of random pics...

Antennae 2-5, a couple of feed horns (really fascinating!) and the secondary mirror...