Astronomy:Warkworth Radio Telescope
The Warkworth 12m Radio Telescope is a radio telescope at the Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory, located just south of Warkworth, New Zealand, about 50 km north of the Auckland CBD.[1] It is operated by the Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research of Auckland University of Technology and was constructed in 2008.[2][3][4]
Technical information
The 12m diameter antenna was designed and constructed by COBHAM Satcom.
The antenna is a fully steerable dual shaped Cassegrain with a main dish diameter of 12.1m and a secondary reflector diameter of 1.8m. The focal Length is 4.538m. The surface precision is 0.35mm (RMS) and the pointing accuracy is 18 inches. It operates in the L-Band, S-Band and X-Band with dual polarisation S and X-band feeds from COBHAM with room temperature receivers. The receiver systems cover 2.2 to 2.4 GHz at S-band and 8.1 to 9.1 GHz at X-band.
It is mounted alt-azimuth and has slewing rates of 5 deg/s in azimuth and 1.25 deg/s in elevation, and acceleration of 1.3 deg/s/s.
Research activity
In 2010 this dish was used for several very-long-baseline interferometry(VLBI) observations[5][6] in conjunction with the Australian Long Baseline Array.[7]
From 2011 it was a part of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry.[8] It is also co-located with a Land Information New Zealand and GNS Science 'PositioNZ' Global Navigation Satellite System[9] station, to assist in maintaining the International Terrestrial Reference Frame.
See also
- Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory
- Warkworth 30m Radio Telescope
- Radio astronomy
- Radio telescope
- List of radio telescopes
References
- ↑ Gulyaev, S., Natusch, T., "Introducing the AUT 12m Radio Telescope". Southern Stars, 47 (1), 2008.
- ↑ Gulyaev, S., Natusch, T., "New Zealand 12-m VLBI Station for Geodesy and Astronomy". IVS 2008 Annual Report, 2008.
- ↑ D., Dickey, 9 October 2008, Rodney Times,p.11, A first for NZ, New Zealand's first professional radio telescope was officially opened yesterday at Satellite Station Rd in Warkworth.
- ↑ D., Dickey, 16 October 2008,p.5, Rodney Times, Science fiction becomes reality, The Telecom satellite station south of Warkworth held the official opening of the new radio telescope on 8 October.
- ↑ Tzioumis et al, Evolution of the pc-scale structure of PKS 1934-638 revisited: first science with the ASKAP and New Zealand telescopes, The Astronomical Journal 140 (2010) 1506-1510
- ↑ Leonid Petrov; Chris Phillips; Tasso Tzioumis; Bruce Stansby; Cormac Reynolds; Hayley Bignall; Sergei Gulyaev; Tim Natusch et al. (2010). "First geodetic observations using new VLBI stations ASKAP-29 and WARK12M". Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia 28 (2): 107–116. doi:10.1071/AS10048. Bibcode: 2011PASA...28..107P.
- ↑ "VLBI and the Australian Long Baseline Array". http://www.atnf.csiro.au/vlbi/.
- ↑ "International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS)". http://www.iers.org/SharedDocs/OrganisationalUnit/IVS.html/.
- ↑ "PositioNZ". http://apps.linz.govt.nz/positionz/.
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