Parkes Dish 50th Anniversary this weekend

[Poita]

Anyone heading to Parkes this weekend for the 50th anniversary of the big Dish?
http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/opendays/2011/

[Omaroo]

Yes, 17 of our society (MAS) members will be there. :thumbsup:

[Poita]

I'm heading over on Saturday morning to take a look-see and staying overnight, hopefully will get clear skies!

[Kevnool]

Was there last week in Parkes and will be there next month.

Cheers Kev

[alistairsam]

I'm driving up from Melbourne with the family to be there on Sat.
Looking forward to it.

[Poita]

We will be there on Saturday as well.
Take it easy on the drive, it is a long one!

[Omaroo]

MAS are doing a tour of Peak Hill gold mine in the morning (Saturday) and will be at the Dish from 12:15 until 16:00. Might catch up with some of you there :) We'll be the ones with the "MAS" logo on our shirts.

[strongmanmike]

Friggin hell I didn't know this was on :eyepop:...where have I been :screwy:

Opera under the dish???....hard to beat that! Oh Sole Mio!

Mike

[Steffen]

I'll be there too, I seem to have snatched the last two beds in Parkes ;)

Cheers
Steffen.

[alistairsam]

Reached Parkes after a pleasant drive from Melb.
But torrential rain 2k's around the dish. Clouds everywhere. sigh!!
looking forward to tomorrow. Looks like it'll be a big turnout.
I could only get accommodation at Peak Hill.

[Poita]

Anyone have any info on the peak hill gold mine? Is it kid friendly? Would like something to take the kids to after or before the dish.

[Omaroo]

Completely awesome day. Peak Hill in the AM and the Dish from midday until close. Fan damntastic. 400 photos no problem. What a great day!

[alistairsam]

Had a superb day as well. Went on the dish tour twice, spoke to a few scientists and engineers, heard about the awesome computing power of the Askap array, fabulous evening at the opera with the dish as the backdrop and fireworks at the end. unforgettable. a lucky family won the first prize at the raffle, a hay ride on the dish in the morning.

[strongmanmike]

Photos, photos!!

Anyone sound record any of the concert? :D

Please tell me they belted out Nessun Dorma under the dish, surely???

guardi le stelle.. che tremano d'amore :thumbsup:

Mike

[alistairsam]

here are some pics I took. I do have more of the insides but not sure if I'm allowed to post them here.

[alistairsam]

some more

[alistairsam]

a few facts I didn't know about the dish (as mentioned by the tour guides)

there is actually an optical telescope inside the dish and they use a laser with that to point to the target or required position, and the dish apparently follows.!! in the olden days, a person used to sit inside and man the optical telescope and control the dish. the optical is called the MEQ, Master Equatorial.

the counter weights alone are 400 tons, with the whole dish weighing close to 1000 tons.

the azimuth axis has 4 conical rollers for its friction drive with 30000:1 reduction gearboxes driven by DC motors. They do use encoders but not sure if they're optical or other.

There are actually two independent foundations, the dish has its own, and the tower its own. you can see the gap between the two from the inside.

the cables from the control room and ground go to junction boxes, and from there go into a "twister room" which allows the dish to rotate a max of 540 degrees in one direction ad will then need to rotate in the opposite direction to "unwind" the cables.
the CSIRO CEO mentioned that the dish was instrumental in discovering a planet made completely out of diamond this year. not sure how.

the dish has to have a person on site, with sort of a dead mans switch. if the motion sensors don't detect movement in 15 mins, alarms go off.

the ASKAP array sensors transfer an immense amount of data from the dish at the rate of 2 Terabits/sec. that is then filtered and downsampled by onsite computers to 2 Gbps. that is then relayed to supercomputers that analyze the dataset.

[mental4astro]

Great pictures Alistair!

Sounds like a good time was had.

[Poita]

One of the scientists also mentioned that he often books time on the parkes dish rather than on more powerful arrays as he gets his data the same day, whereas with the arrays the computation required to phase and then upload the data can take days before he can start work on it. I found that interesting.

[strongmanmike]

Far out man! That would have been a friggin fantastic concert, what was the sound and the voices like? I knew the backdrop would be good :thumbsup:

Mike

[Omaroo]

Another couple...

[alistairsam]

Hey Mike,

yep, the macquarie philharmornia Orchestra were simply superb, soloists were very good.
http://www.parkesunderthestars.com.au/the-event/artist-profiles.aspx
and yes, they did belt out Nessun Dorma and other famous ones.
Bit of humour too as the MC had played the mayor in the movie, the dish.

The backdrop of the Dish and the moon above was an inspiring sight and iconic of the connection it made in the apollo era between the moon and the earth.
they have some pics on their website as well
http://www.macquariephilharmonia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=25

[strongmanmike]

Must have been an experience :)

It was the three Tenors concert in Rome in 1990 that turned me toward opera (as I am sure it did to many) and I recon this spectacle at Parks may have turned a few too :thumbsup:

Ah...the maestro...can't believe he is dead...

Non discordar di me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHC0jiuyrCQ&feature=related)

...oh and..at his absolute best (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8F-lenWkIo&feature=related) in 1982, he was the real voice

Mike
Pav fan :D

[Steffen]

Ok, some pics from me too :P

I didn't go to the concert, but the visit was well worth it!

Cheers
Steffen.

[Robster]

Hi all,

I don't post very much these days - my life got taken over by cancer but I'm getting better.

Between 1996 and 2002 we lived in Parkes and they were some of the best years we've had. Not long after they released the movie they had a special night at the telescope where they set up an outdoor cinema and played the DVD of the movie. At one point they had an outside view of the telescope lit up at night and at that point I turned my head to see the real McCoy lit up and it was breathtaking!

I've looked at some of the photos that were taken at the 50th Anniversar celebration at the scope and all I can say is that it just keeps getting better with the years.

The townsfolk of Parkes can be rightly proud of their beloved dish.

Robster;)