12th of July 2015 |
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First interferometry in Australia |
This 32-element grating array was erected
in 1951 along the south bank of the smaller reservoir at the Potts Hill field
station. The array comprised 32 x 1.8-m solid metal parabolic dishes, with
simple polar axes supported by wooden posts. Operating at 1420 MHz (21cm)
with a 3 arcmin beam, this array revealed the sizes, brightness temperatures
and heights of 'radio plages' in the solar corona, located above chromospheric
(optical) plages. - (The picture was taken in 1953; caption thanks to Wayne
Orchiston, Miller Goss and Jessica Chapman). Apart from solar radio observations, Potts Hill is where the 21-cm spectral line emission of neutral hydrogen (now known as the HI line) was confirmed. And the very first use of interferometry occured at Potts Hill ! Image Credit: CSIRO Radio Astronomy Image Archive. |