Orroral 26 metre antenna at Mount Pleasant


Orroral’s antenna gets a new life

After Orroral Valley closed in 1985, the 85 foot (26 metre) antenna was donated to the School of Mathematics & Physics of the University of Tasmania.

Orroral Valley’s last Station Director, Ian Grant, deserves the credit for ensuring the 26 metre antenna went to a good home, and he expended considerable effort in making arrangements for the antenna and associated equipment to be transferred to Tasmania.

Once in Tasmania, the antenna became the large dish of the Mount Pleasant Radio Observatory.

The new location is 42 48' 18'' S, 147 26' 21'' E, at an elevation of 43 metres.

The dish is a key element in the Australian Long Baseline Array VLBI network. More info here.

It is the last 85 foot antenna from Canberra’s 1960s-era NASA tracking stations to still be in use.

 

Mount Pleasant

The Mount Pleasant 26 metre radio telescope, and one of the two original NASA cherrypickers which accompanied the antenna.

Photo: Colin Mackellar, May 2024.

Mount Pleasant

In 2011, the antenna celebrated its 25th Anniversary as a radio telescope.

Our thanks go to Radio Astronomer Dave Jauncey for sharing this composite, using this photo by Dr. Jim Lovell and a photo of the opening plaque.


Mount Pleasant

Brett Reid, Mount Pleasant’s Observatory Manager.

Photo: Colin Mackellar, May 2024.

Mount Pleasant

On 06 May 2024, Radio Astronomer Dr. Jim Palfreyman is pictured with a plot of the aftermath of a rare glitch of the Vela Pulsar – it had occurred earlier that morning, shortly before the pulsar had risen at Mount Pleasant.

(Earlier, on 12 December, 2016, using the Mount Pleasant 26 metre dish, Dr. Palfreyman was the first person to successfully capture a complete glitch with pulse-level detail. Glitches occur approximately every three years, though observing them in the act has been challenging.)

Photo: Colin Mackellar.

Mount Pleasant

The opening plaque, 1986.

Photo: Colin Mackellar.