"The Dish"

[iceman]

What a brilliant movie!

Brings a lump to the throat in parts.. man I so wish I was around back then!

I wonder if we'd have the same "wonder" now as we did back then.. would people stop what they're doing or is the world too "busy" now?

How far is Parkes from Sydney anyway?

Would love to go and visit (and photograph) the dish one day soon.

Who's been there? Post some photos!

[seeker372011]

well I have already :)-in this thread

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=1330&highlight=australia+telescope

[snowyskiesau]

remember the event well!
Stayed up all night watching a grainy black and white picture of just the space craft sitting on the lunar surface, until the actual moon walk the following day. Cost me a days pay but well worth it.

[stephenmcnelley]

If you were around at that time iceman you would be suffering the effects of age right now, enjoy the pioneering spirit and physical energy of youth while it still fills us i say, there is plenty of scope for nostalgia later, and intelligence!!

Thanks for the reminder though, i guess most here could watch that movie every year at least you gotta love it.
I gave my mum hell on that day apparently.

[Harb]

As a bit of trivia, Myself and a friend have most of the Electronic Equipment used in the Apollo 11 Mission that was at Parkes........
I have spent a heap of time there over the years and have even played cricket on the dish!!
Back before the latest upgrades, and even the upgrades before that, the mesh on the dish was not as sensitive as it is now, and it wasn't an unusual site to see Radio astronomers, Telescope drivers and techo's having a wack about when it was in the "stowed" position....
The acuracy of the curve in the dish is amazing to say the least, with much of it being built in the shade of dugouts to stabilise the temperature while welding....a work of art to be sure.
It is still a real atmosphere of new discovery out there, as every day could be the one they "hear" something new.
I even have a photo somewhere of me stuck in the centre access port at the centre of the dish!
The aerial cabin is very different these days.
The old one could only hold one reciever, and if the needed to change to a new frequency, they would tilt her over and lower the old one down, and winch the new one up off the back of a truck...
Now the new, much larger cabin can hold two recievers that are shifted side to side to change freq's.....much quicker and less down time. although it is still a slow bumpy ride up the eleviator in one of the tripod legs to get to the top.......and a very long way back down when you choose to walk down one of the other legs via the stairs...
I have been rebuilding one of the old conrac B/W monitors which first Pictures from Apollo 11 came through on. I am setting up an office display of the relics of those times, even though I was only 6 at the time.

cheers
John

[Lester]

Was in grade 7, the school didn't have television so all went to friends and family houses in Cummins to view the great event.

[alan meehan]

hi mike
yep a real pearler of a movie i was 12 back then just looking through my first scope.you have to realise back then the "wonder"then was on tv or radioto much information from many sources today.makes people not to be in awe as much nowdays.i keep saying i have got to go to parkes myself,got to be worth the trip.

[Omaroo]

It's been years since I've been to Parkes. My ex-sister-in-law's family were big land owners in the Parkes/Forbes area and we used to go there quite often. Each and every time my father would let us visit the dish - because if he didn't, he'd get a screaming, unbalanced & narky kid in the back seat for the whole trip home to Sydney.

I was in 1st class (equivalent grade now?) in 1969 which was a month before my 7th birthday. I still remember the whole class sitting around the b/w telly, watching in complete and absolute awe as Neil stepped out on to the surface. That event still registers with me like it was just yesterday. It was a life-changer. I've been fascinated to the point of obsession with the whole space program (both US and Russian) ever since. If I could've been involved professionally during my career at some point I'd be whole.

We have the movie in our collection and it is watched often. It departs from the truth in several spots apparently, but who cares. What a great feel-good flick. Both it and Apollo 13 are brilliant to watch one after the other on a rainy Sunday arvo when nothing else is going on......or even if it is! :D

[alan meehan]

oops sorry was 14 back then ,good old b&w tele.

[RB]

My parents had taken me to see the actual Launch of Apollo 11 but a day prior to the event we were touring Hollywood.
Well I was only 3 y.o and happened to stray from the main group.
I ended up in the back lot in Paramount and there on stage 8, I stumbled onto Neil and Buzz "practicing" the landing ! :D

Wow they offered me some candy and asked me not to tell anyone. :shrug:
They were very nice guys indeed and it was fun to watch it being played back on TV a few days later.

So I guess I was the first person to see Neil step onto the moon......:party:

[xstream]

I can still remember that day like it was only yesterday. I was in 1st form the entire school of 800 students and teachers were sitting in the assembly hall watching on numerous B/W televisions scattered around.

I went to Box Hill Boys Technical College and to be able to hear a pin drop amongst 800 hormone charged teenage boys was probably a feat in it's self. Then when Armstrong made that first step one would of thought the roof was going to cave in.

Truly an occasion that is indelibly etched in my mind forever.

[alan meehan]

so it was you that started that rumour it was all amovie

[RB]

:ashamed: I only told a lady from "The Inquirer". :rofl:

Actually I wish I was old enough to remember it. All I remember was my parents taking us to a neighbour's house to watch. I'm not sure if it was Apollo 11 or one of the latter ones though.

An amazing time in history indeed !!!

[wavelandscott]

And this is where the "conspiracy" started...thanks a lot RB!

But seriously, growing up in the US and being a young boy interested in all things space at the time was a magical time...the excitement and patriotism that swept the country was incredible.

I grew up one state over from Neil Armstrong and he went to University at Purdue University (you might recognize the school mascot in my signature), the "school for astronauts" ( a whole heap of them have gone there)which is within an hours drive of where I grew up...as you can well imagine (and I am doing to) everyone seemed to be able to find some personal connection to the Apollo program...

For example, my mother told me that the Doctor who delivered me at birth and was my "baby" doctor, was hired by NASA and did the medical check-up on the astronauts after they got back to earth...she told that story hundreds of times.

I have no idea if that was really true or not but it did fuel my imagination and interst in space.

The Dish is a good movie and while I've not yet been to Parkes I have taken the kids to Tidbinbilla which is pretty amazing too!

[gaa_ian]

The depth of involvement of good folks here is just amazing
I can (just) remember the moon landings as a kid in redcliffe Qld.
The Dish is certainly a great movie, an aussie Icon !

[ving]

i went as a kid... i wasnt interested in astronomy at the time but was still impressed with it :)

I'd love to go now :)

didnt watch it last night tho... i was testing my new mount out ;)

[Ric]

Hi Mike, it's been many many years since I visited Parkes, but the dish is well worth the trip. They were doing guided tours back then but I dont know about now and the size of the dish is what really astounded me.

The movie is also one of my favourites, I have it in my DVD collection.
I remember Apollo 11 in the same way as xstream, we were all in the school assembly hall and watching various B/W tellys, a great moment I will never forget. I just hope that I'll get to see the Mars landing one day.

cheers

[Harb]

I'll see if I can get some photos of some of the stuff next time I am out at the farm where I store the stuff...........
I have been very lucky to save this stuff from the scrapy's, as a lot of stuff ends up going that way, but a couple of good friends let me know about the gear years ago, and I at the time grabed it, thinking it would be good stuff for my amateur TV projects (I'm into Ham Radio as well, Any amateurs here may have spoken to us on one of our Radio Telescope Hamfests which held the callsign VK2BRT ......Big Radio Telescope). It was years later I thought what was left should be preserved, And I regret wrecking some of it for bits and pieces before I came to my senses....
It is really interesting how primative it all is.
The US stuff which was mostly taken back, was fairly Hi tech for its day, but the Ozi made gear was straight from the back shed.....dymo style labels etc..
But inside these boxes was state of the art electronics.
There was, and still is some of the most impressive minds you will ever meet out there.
They Talk at a level that is very hard to keep up with indeed.
I'll post some pic's anyway, and you can compare them to some of the internal shots of the Telescope from those days and see some of it in the racks!
The old conrac monitor is going to be great. I am going to run a Video loop of the landing through it in my front office with other period gear including some of the various meters and scopes etc also used all set up running.
all good fun!

cheers
John

[sheeny]

It's a great movie Mike! One of my two favs (with Apollo 13).

Great place to visit.

I was out there in the late '90s teaching the crew and local emergency services vertical rescue off the dish. It's a vertical rescuer's heaven!

What I really like about the movie the disk was that the feel of the characters was very genuine and consistent with the sort of characters we met. The hay rides, the cricket, the middle of the sheep paddock - all genuine. While we were doing the VR training we noticed all these crazy wheel tracks all over the paddocks... we had to ask! They went out rabbitting the night before we got there while the scope was taking a long exposure!

I have posted some Parkes pics here before.

Al.

[fringe_dweller]

hehe this kinda thread is deja vue here now - but what the hey! what a story :)
I was 6 yr, old grade 1 or 2? Holy Family primary catholic school, Townsville qld, they sent us home in our little kahki's (you could actually walk to school and back in those days kids! amazing), a half day, watched it on b&w tv there - can remember it vividly like yesterday, it is in the league of first cracker night, strings of tom thumbs igniting whilst in my pocket ect. street lights going off at 11 pm ect. ect. geez we had it good - music: swelling strings: streisand singing 'memories, like the corners of my mind, misty coloured ..'
the whole human race stood ten feet tall that day - been nothing like it since imo :)

[mickoking]

I missed the first moon landing by 61 days :P

[spacezebra]

No TV - and totally missed it:sadeyes:

Cheers Petra

[leon]

Yea ive seen the movie about 10 times, got it on DVD, love it, also visited Parks last time i went through to the SPSP. Near Illford
Cheers Leon

PIc, No 1 The Old Original Control Panel Used In The Movie
Pic, No 2 The Dish

[iceman]

Thanks for all the stories and pictures.. it's definitely somewhere I want to go next year.

[Sausageman]

I have some great photo's of Parkes, but I need to compress them first.
Give me a couple of days to work on them and I will post them.

Mike.

[Outbackmanyep]

I have been to Parkes and seen the dish way back in 1992, and i have seen the movie and want to go visit again soon!

What i want to know is ....is there anyone that is as young as me and 10 years too late to witness it on tv!? LOL
I can't remember much until Halleys Comet in 1986!

HEHE