Is the dish still in Parkes?

The Dish in Parkes: Still Listening After All These Years

So, is the Dish still in Parkes? Absolutely! The iconic radio telescope, affectionately known as “The Dish” but officially named Murriyang, is alive and well, nestled near Parkes, New South Wales. Just a hop, skip, and a jump – about 20 kilometers north of town, to be precise – and you’ll find it diligently scanning the cosmos, 24/7.

This isn’t just some old relic, mind you. Built way back in 1961, this 64-meter marvel quickly became a landmark, and boy, did it make a name for itself! Its ingenious design even caught the eye of NASA, who borrowed some of its features for their Deep Space Network. But perhaps its most memorable moment came during the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Remember those grainy, black-and-white images? The Dish was the one beaming them to an estimated 530 million people around the globe! Talk about a claim to fame – it even inspired the movie “The Dish.”

But The Dish is more than just a pretty face and a Hollywood story. This telescope has been a workhorse for astronomical discovery. It’s helped us understand those mysterious quasars, mapped the Milky Way’s swirling arms, and, get this, discovered over half of all known pulsars! And who could forget its role in spotting the very first Fast Radio Burst? Seriously impressive stuff. It’s also playing a key role in the hunt for gravitational waves as part of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array.

Now, you might think something built in the ’60s would be gathering dust, but not this beauty. The Parkes Observatory is constantly getting upgrades to keep it cutting-edge. Think of it like giving your trusty old car a souped-up engine and a fresh coat of paint. Recent improvements include fancy new receivers like the Ultra Wide-bandwidth Low (UWL) receiver and the Cryogenic Cooled Phased Array Feed (CryoPAF). These upgrades are like giving the telescope super-hearing, allowing astronomers to pick up the faintest whispers from the universe.

That CryoPAF, once it’s fully online, will let the telescope see a much bigger chunk of the sky at once. This is a game-changer! All these improvements mean the Dish will continue to be relevant, even with the arrival of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). In fact, it’s set to be the only large single-dish radio astronomy facility down here in the Southern Hemisphere for the foreseeable future.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) manages the Parkes Observatory as part of its Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) network. And in 2020, it earned a spot on the Australian National Heritage List, recognizing its huge scientific, historical, and cultural importance.

If you ever find yourself in the neighborhood, swing by the Parkes Observatory Visitors Centre. You can learn all about radio astronomy and the amazing things the Dish has accomplished. Trust me, it’s become a real icon, not just for the Central West region of NSW, but for Australian science as a whole.

So, to put it simply: The Dish isn’t going anywhere. The Parkes Observatory and its iconic Murriyang telescope are still going strong, a testament to Aussie ingenuity and a continuing source of scientific breakthroughs. With ongoing upgrades and a dedication to top-notch research, the Dish is all set to continue its legacy for many years to come. It’s not just a telescope; it’s an icon, a piece of history, and a window to the universe.