The Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory is a radio astronomy based observatory owned and operated by University of Tasmania, located 20 km east of Hobart in Cambridge, Tasmania. It is home to three radio astronomy antennas and the Grote Reber Museum.
Equipment
The observatory has two active radio telescopes: the Mount Pleasant 26 m antenna and a 12 m AuScope VLBI Antenna. The Observatory is linked to the University of Tasmania's Hobart campus with a 25 km fibre optic cable, installed in 2007.
The 26-meter dish at Mount Pleasant as seen at night
The 14 m Vela telescope that was constructed in 1981 as a dedicated instrument for observation of the Vela Pulsar has been decommissioned since 2006 and is in the process of being refurbished. The telescope used to track the pulsar 18 hours a day, nearly continuously for over 20 years.
The 26 m Radio dish came from the Orroral Valley Tracking Station, ACT, where it was used as a satellite tracker within the Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network and then for support to NASA manned missions. The 26 m telescope is used in Australia's very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) network.
Other Telescopes
The University of Tasmania also operates three other radio astronomy antennas: the 30 m Ceduna Radio Observatory (SA) and two additional AuScope 12 m antennas at Katherine (NT) and Yaragadee (WA).
The University also owns and operates the Bisdee Tier Optical Astronomy Observatory. The Canopus Hill Observatory is closed.
Grote Reber Museum
There is also a museum on site dedicated to the life and works of Grote Reber. It contains some of his ashes and a state of the art 3D theatre. It also discusses the major role Tasmania plays in radiophysics The museum hosts about 5000 visitors annually and runs several Open Days each year. University of Tasmania students also act as tour guides as part of their studies.
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University of Tasmania
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| Leadership |
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Colleges, Schools
and Specialist Institutes |
| Arts, Law and Education |
- College of Arts, Law and Education
- Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music
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| Health and Medicine |
- College of Health and Medicine
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| Sciences and Engineering |
- College of Sciences and Engineering
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| Business and Economics |
- Tasmanian School of Business and Economics
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| University College |
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| Specialist Institutes |
- Australian Maritime College
- Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture
- Menzies Institute for Medical Research
- Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
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| Residential colleges |
- Christ College
- Jane Franklin Hall
- Kerslake Hall
- St. John Fisher College
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| Athletics |
- Australian football
- Cricket
- Rugby union
- Soccer football
- University of Tasmania Stadium
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| People |
- List of University of Tasmania people
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| Student Life |
- Tasmania University Union
- Togatus
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| Related |
- Academic dress
- Old Nick Company
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| Concepts |
- Units (watt and jansky)
- Radio telescope (Radio window)
- Astronomical interferometer (History)
- Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI)
- Astronomical radio source
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Radio telescopes
(List) |
Individual
telescopes |
- 500 meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST, China)
- Arecibo Telescope (Puerto Rico, US)
- Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO, US)
- Effelsberg Telescope (Germany)
- Galenki RT-70 (Russia)
- Green Bank Telescope (West Virginia, US)
- Large Millimeter Telescope (Mexico)
- Lovell Telescope (UK)
- Ooty Telescope (India)
- Qitai Radio Telescope (China)
- RATAN-600 Radio Telescope (Russia)
- Sardinia Radio Telescope (Italy)
- Suffa RT-70 (Uzbekistan)
- Usuda Telescope (Japan)
- UTR-2 decameter radio telescope (Ukraine)
- Yevpatoria RT-70 (Ukraine)
- Southern Hemisphere
- HartRAO (South Africa)
- Parkes Observatory (Australia)
- Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory (NZ)
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| Interferometers |
- Allen Telescope Array (ATA, California, US)
- Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA, Chile)
- Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA, Australia)
- Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP, Australia)
- Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME, Canada)
- Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA, California, US)
- European VLBI Network (Europe)
- Event Horizon Telescope (EHT)
- Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT, India)
- Green Bank Interferometer (GBI, West Virginia, US)
- Korean VLBI Network (KVN, South Korea)
- Large Latin American Millimeter Array (LLAMA, Argentina/Brazil)
- Long Wavelength Array (LWA, New Mexico, US)
- Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR, Netherlands)
- MeerKAT (South Africa)
- Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST, Australia)
- Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN, UK)
- Murchison Widefield Array (MWA, Australia)
- Northern Cross Radio Telescope (Italy)
- Northern Extended Millimeter Array (France)
- One-Mile Telescope (UK)
- Primeval Structure Telescope (PaST, China)
- Square Kilometre Array (SKA, Australia, South Africa)
- Submillimeter Array (SMA, US)
- Very Large Array (VLA, New Mexico, US)
- Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA, US)
- Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT, Netherlands)
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| Space-based |
- HALCA (Japan)
- Spektr-R (Russia)
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| Observatories |
- Algonquin Radio Observatory (Canada)
- Arecibo Observatory (Puerto Rico, US)
- Green Bank Observatory (US)
- Haystack Observatory (US)
- Jodrell Bank Observatory (UK)
- Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory (UK)
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US)
- Nançay Radio Observatory (France)
- Onsala Space Observatory (Sweden)
- Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory (PRAO ASC LPI, Russia)
- Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Science (SAORAS, Russia)
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| Multi-use |
- DRAO (Canada)
- ESA New Norcia (Australia)
- PARL (Canada)
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| People |
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| Related articles |
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- Submillimetre astronomy
- Infrared astronomy
- Optical astronomy
- High-energy astronomy
- Gravitational-wave astronomy
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