The Australian Telescope not
only consists of a radio telescope,
but of six other instruments,
mainly for research on the sun. It
is the largest and most powerful
radio telescope array in the
Southern Hemisphere.
At the observatory there are 5
huge antennas that can be moved
along a 3 km track in a east-west
direction and also along a 30m
north-south track. A 6the antenna
is situated a further 3 km west of
the main track. Using this
configuration, the combined power
of the antennas can simulate a
single 'dish' 6 km in diameter.
The exposition was excellent
again and we are now fully updated
on the recent developments on
astronomy. The exposition was
nicely complementary to that of the
Siding Spring Observatory. This was
centred about Supernovae, pulsars,
black holes and quasars. A quasar
radiates more energy than 100
normal galaxies (each may contain a
million times a billion stars. This
bright, star like sources, may be
the farthest objects yet detected
in universe.
The universe is so enormous
gigantic that it is beyond
understanding. It is calculated
there are much more stars, most of
hem even with planets, than grains
of sand on earth!
It was hot, very hot. According to
the radio 45ºC could be expected,
but it felt much hotter. More of a
problem were the aggressive flies.
They are smaller than the European
ones, but very persistent. The
sometimes fly in your ears and nose
and if it is hot, they try to drink
from the fluid of your eyes, if you
have no sunglasses. Doing that they
are not easy chased away, so you
conveniently can push them dead,
leaving a mess.
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