Mopra Observatory
1528757
218870667
2008-06-12T15:10:44Z
130.246.132.26
The 22-metre '''Mopra''' [[Radio Telescope]], located near [[Coonabarabran, New South Wales]], is part of the [[Australia Telescope National Facility]], operated by [[CSIRO]]. The name hails from the location of the facility close to '''Mopra Rock''' a geological formation overlooking the telescope. It is also close to the Siding Spring optical observatory in the Warrumbungle National Park.
For use as a single-dish, it has niche equipment allowing large bandwidths to be observed at millimeter-wavelengths. Being a part of the '''Australia Telescope''', it is often used in conjunction with other AT antennas (e.g., the [[Australia Telescope Compact Array]] at [[Paul Wild Observatory|Narrabri]], and the 64-metre [[Parkes Observatory|Parkes]] dish) to form a [[Very Long Baseline Interferometry|Very Long Baseline Interferometry]] (VLBI) array.
Commissioned in 2006 was the '''Mopra Spectrometer (MOPS)''' "backend" which has a maximum instantaneous bandwidth of 8 GHz, it also has special zoom-modes which allow high resolution studies of up to 16 138 MHz bands over any 8 GHz. It is especially tuned to the high-performance millimeter-wavelength receivers. The main specialty of the instrument is the response of the 3-mm receiver which nominally can observe between 75-115 GHz. New downconversion equipment fine-tuned the 3-mm system while it also received a 12-mm receiver package early-2006.
Until 2006, the telescope was operated on-site by visiting users. The default mode shifted to remote operation from the ATCA, Narrabri in the winter of 2006.
==External links==
*[http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/mopra Mopra Observatory (ATNF Mopra)] official website
{{observatory-stub}}
[[Category:Radio telescopes]]