Parkes Open Weekend, 18-19 July 2009 August 3, 2009
Posted by astroed in Astronomy.trackback
The recent open weekend at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory was a huge success. We had over 6,500 people visit over the two days including over 3,000 people touring the telescope itself. This is no mean feat when each tour group is a maximum of 15 people led by a staff member. The open weekend was scheduled for the weekend of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. A series of talks covered a range of topics, from my one on an Introduction to Radio Astronomy to Jill Tarter, from the SETI Institute who gave the John Bolton Memorial Lecture. Other presenters during the weekend included:
- David Malin, Astrophotographer, who spoke on ‘Galileo’s astronomical legacy’.
- John Sarkissian, Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) Operations Scientist, who lectured on ‘Parkes and the Apollo Missions’.
- George Hobbs, ATNF Astronomer, who discussed ‘Parkes and pulsars’.
Members of the Central West Astronomical Society with their daylight observing display at the Parkes Open Weekend 2009.
On Saturday the queue for the telescope tours was lengthy but luckily those in it were entertained by a couple of guest from Questacon; Einstein and an astronaut on a Segway. The first family in line early on Saturday morning had driven all the way from Townsville for the event. A couple had also come from the UK primarily for the Open Weekend!
Einstein and an Astronaut at the Dish
Visitors could also do a self-guided tour down to the Parkes Testbed Facility, a 1m antenna currently being used to trial new technologies for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a new array of 36 12m antennas being built by CSIRO in outback Western Australia. CSIRO Education had a Starlab portable planetarium set up so visitors could view the night sky during the day. The Central West Astronomical Society had a wide range of optical telescopes set up so that people could do some daytime viewing of the Sun, Moon and Venus. Stunning astro images for the 2009 David Malin Awards were also on display.
Have a look at a video of a fly-by of the iconic telescope. This was taken by a colleague, David Champion from his helicopter flight around the telescope during the open weekend. This provided a nice break for David as he was one of the three astronomers observing throughout the weekend. They had a new tour group past their control room every few minutes on both days so were somewhat like goldfish in a bowl but they cheerfully spoke to each group about the observations they were making.
The weekend was a great success with perfect weather. Now only two years to the Dish’s 50th anniversary!
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?