Mt
Pleasant Radio Observatory
|
|
The Mt
Pleasant Radio Observatory is located near Cambridge, Tasmania about 30
mins north of Hobart. There are two radio telescopes on the site, the
26 metre "Mt Pleasant Antenna" and the 14 metre "Vela Antenna". More
detailed information about the observatory and the two antennas is
available here.
|
|
|
|
Ceduna Radio Observatory
|
|
| The Ceduna Radio
Observatory is the only one of the University's observatories not
located in Tasmania. The obseravtory and associated land is located
near the town of Ceduna in South Australia. The main instrument at the
observatory is the 30 metre Ceduna radio telescope. Originally the
telescope was part of an Australia wide telecommunications network but
it was aquired in 1985 by the University of Tasmania and is now used as
a radio telescope. The Ceduna antenna is the most western antenna in
the Australian VLBI network (now that Perth is no longer used) making
it an extremely important component. Details of the antenna and
recievers can be found here.
|
|
|
|
Mt
Canopus Observatory
|
|
Mt Canopus is
located near Hobart and the groups optical observatory. Currently the 1
metre Mt Canopus telescope is used in conjuction with a CCD camera to
perform photometric observations of X-ray binary systems and other
objects of interest. Mt Canopus is also part of the PLANET ( Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) project which uses microlensing
events to search for a variety of astrophysical phenomena
including extra-solar planets! Details of the instrument can be
found here.
|
|
|
|
Bruny
Island Radio Spectrometer
|
|
The Bruny Island
Radio Spectrometer is the work of Professor Bill Erickson who is a
pioneer in the field of low frequency radio astronomy. Located on Bruny
Island, south of
Hobart, the spectrometer mainly used to investigate solar bursts in the
rarely observed frequency range from 3 to 20 MHz. More detailed
information can be access on the website of
the BIRS, which is maintained by Professor Erickson.
|
|
