Parkes Observatory
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{{Infobox Observatory
|name = Parkes Observatory
|image = [[Image:parkes.arp.750pix.jpg|250px]]
|caption = The Parkes Observatory in [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]]
|organization = Australia Telescope National Facility
|location = Parkes, NSW, Australia
|coords = {{coor dms|32|59|59.8|S|148|15|44.3|E}}
|altitude =
|weather =
|established =
|closed =
|website=[http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/ www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au]
|telescope1_name = Parkes Radio Telescope
|telescope1_type = 64m movable radio dish
|telescope2_name =
|telescope2_type =
|telescope3_name =
|telescope3_type =
|telescope4_name =
|telescope4_type =
}}
The '''Parkes Observatory''' is a [[radio telescope]] observatory, 20 kilometres north of the town of [[Parkes, New South Wales|Parkes]], [[New South Wales]], [[Australia]]. It was one of several radio antennas used to receive images of the [[Apollo 11]] moon landing in July 1969.
==The radio telescope==
The '''Parkes Radiothermal Telescope''', completed in 1961, was the brainchild of [[Taffy Bowen|E.G. (Taffy) Bowen]], chief of the [[CSIRO]]'s Radiophysics Laboratory. During the [[Second World War]], he had worked on radar development in America and had made some powerful friends in the scientific community. Calling on this old boy network, he persuaded two philanthropic organisations, the [[Carnegie Corporation]] and the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] to fund half the cost of the telescope. It was this recognition and key financial support from America that persuaded then Prime Minister [[Robert Menzies]] to agree to fund the rest of the project.<ref>http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/parkes/default.htm</ref>
The primary observing instrument is the 64-metre movable dish telescope, second largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the first large movable dishes in the world (DSS-43 at [[Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex|Tidbinbilla]] was extended from 64 m to 70 m in 1987, surpassing Parkes).<ref>http://www.cdscc.nasa.gov/Pages2/pg01h_history.html#anchor46177</ref> After its completion it has operated almost continuously to the present day. The dish surface was physically upgraded by adding smooth metal plates to the central part to provide focusing capability for centimetre and millimetre length [[microwave]]s. The outer part of the dish remains a fine metal mesh, creating its distinctive two-tone appearance.
The 18m dish antenna in the foreground of the photo was transferred from the Fleurs Observatory ([[Mills Cross]]) in 1963. It was used as a transmit uplink antenna in the Apollo program and has been abandoned since the early 1980s.
The telescope has an [[altazimuth mount]]. It is guided by a small mock-telescope placed within the structure at the same rotational axes as the dish, but with an [[equatorial mount]]. The two are dynamically locked when tracking an astronomical object by a [[laser]] guiding system. This primary-secondary approach was designed by [[Barnes Wallis]].
The success of the Parkes telescope led [[NASA]] to copy the basic design in their [[Deep Space Network]], with matching 64 m dishes built at [[Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex|Goldstone]], [[Madrid Deep Space Communication Complex|Madrid]] and [[Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex|Tidbinbilla]].
The receiving cabin is located at the focus of the parabolic dish, supported by three struts 27 metres above the dish. The cabin contains multiple [[radio]] and [[microwave]] detectors, which can be switched into the focus beam for different science observations.
The observatory is a part of the [[Australia Telescope National Facility]] network of radio telescopes. The 64m dish is frequently operated together with the [[Australia Telescope Compact Array]] at [[Narrabri]] and a single dish at [[Mopra Observatory|Mopra]], to form a [[Very Long Baseline Interferometry|very long baseline interferometry]] array.
During the [[Apollo program|Apollo]] missions to the [[moon]], the Parkes Observatory was used to relay communication and telemetry signals to [[NASA]], providing coverage for when the moon was on the Australian side of the Earth.<ref>http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/apollo11/</ref>
The observatory has remained involved in tracking numerous space missions up to the present day, including the [[Mariner 2]], [[Mariner 4]], [[Voyager spacecraft|Voyager]], [[Giotto mission|Giotto]], [[Galileo spacecraft|Galileo]] and [[Cassini-Huygens]] probes. It is also a major world centre for research into [[pulsar]]s, with more than half of those currently known today discovered at the Parkes Observatory. Between [[1997]] and [[2002]] it conducted the [[HIPASS]] neutral hydrogen survey, the largest blind survey for galaxies in the neutral hydrogen line to date.
[[Image:Parkes observatory radio telescope.jpg|thumb|The big dish]]
The observatory and telescope were featured in the [[2000]] film ''[[The Dish]]'', a fictionalised account of the observatory's involvement with the [[Apollo 11]] moon landing.
===Apollo 11 broadcast===
Contrary to popular belief generated by the film ''[[The Dish]]'', the Parkes Observatory was not the first station to broadcast images from the Apollo 11 moon landing. The [[Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex]] in California was initially used to receive the signals, but, due to problems experienced at the Goldstone complex, NASA switched the main feed to the [[Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station|Honeysuckle Creek]] station outside Canberra. Honeysuckle Creek transmitted the images for about 10 minutes until NASA switched the feed to Parkes. Due to the impressive quality of the images being received, the feed stayed with Parkes and "The Dish" transmitted the remaining footage to the rest of the world. Parkes' control name was PKS.
<ref> {{cite web
| first=Mike
| last=Dinn
| title=Transcript of conversations between Honeysuckle and Houston)
| url = http://members.pcug.org.au/~mdinn/TheDish/extract1b.htm
|accessdate = 2007-07-16 }}</ref>
==See also==
* [[Apollo program missing tapes]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/ Parkes Observatory Home Page]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/parkes/default.htm ABC Science, 2001: 40 years of the Dish]
* [http://www.outreach.atnf.csiro.au/visiting/parkes/parkeswebcam.html View the dish in action]
* {{imdb title|id=0205873|title=The Dish}}
* [http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19660020278_1966020278.pdf Observation of Mariner IV with the Parkes 210-ft Radio Telescope]
[[Category:Radio telescopes]]
[[Category:Astronomical observatories in Australia]]
[[Category:Rockefeller Foundation]]
[[cs:Observatoř Parkes]]
[[de:Parkes-Observatorium]]
[[fr:Observatoire de Parkes]]
[[ja:パークス天文台]]
[[fa:رصدخانه پارکس]]