Friday, September 22, 2006

Parkes Observatory

In Australia or the Place Down Under is the Parkes Observatory. For a change, we will not discuss here a refracting telescope observatory as the Parkes is different - it is a radio telescope observatory. The Parkes observatory is found near the New South Wales town of Parkes.

The Parkes Observatory is a very popular astronomical center; it is well known for its dish that has been etched in astronomical science history as the one that transmitted the landings of the moon.

This telescope observatory’s main astronomical instrument is the 64 meter radio telescope, which is considered as one of the first and the largest movable dish in the world. The dish’s construction was completed in the year 1961 and up to this day is still operational and used for astronomical research.

As opposed to the refracting telescope which is composed mainly of lenses and eyepieces and gathers images, the radio scope is a large dish that is made mainly of metal. The function of this dish is to collect radio waves from space, hence its name. Usually, the radio waves they pick up and record are those that originated from stellar and other celestial and space objects.

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