Australia Telescope Compact Array
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| Australia Telescope Compact Array | |
One of the rail mounted dishes.
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| Organisation | Paul Wild Observatory |
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| Website | http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/ |
The Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) is a radio telescope at the Paul Wild Observatory, twenty five kilometres (16 mi) west of the town of Narrabri in Australia.
The telescope is an array of six identical 22-metre (72 ft) diameter dishes, which commonly operate in aperture synthesis mode to produce radio images. Five of the dishes can be moved along a three-kilometre (2 mi) railway track. The sixth antenna is situated three kilometres west of the end of the main track. Each dish weighs about 270 tonnes (270 long tons; 300 short tons).
The compact array is a part of the Australia Telescope National Facility network of radio telescopes. The array is frequently operated together with the sixty-four-metre (210 ft) dish at the Parkes Observatory and a single dish at Mopra (near Coonabarabran), to form a very long baseline interferometry array.
In Fiction
The children's/young adult drama Sky Trackers was filmed in this facility with the radio telescopes being prominently featured.
External links
- Australia Telescope Compact Array Home Page contains links for the general public and for professional astronomers
- ATCA Live! website (shows current observations)
Coordinates: 30°18′46″S 149°33′01″E / 30.31278°S 149.55028°E
