Two ASKAP Antennas Driven in Unison
3 November 2011
Two of ASKAP's antennas are seen moving in unison for the first time in a report that aired on ABC TV's 7.30 program on 2 November 2011.
The footage, filmed in September 2011, shows an aerial view of the two antennas being successfully driven by ASKAP’s telescope operating software (TOS).
CSIRO's ASKAP Computing team spent a week at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia performing initial tests of the TOS controlling the ASKAP antennas.
"Testing the TOS at the MRO has been four years in the making. Work on the TOS began in 2007, and the software has already been extensively tested using the 12-metre antenna at the Parkes Testbed Facility," says Dr Tim Cornwell, the leader of CSIRO's ASKAP Computing team.
"There are some adjustments that still need to be made, but the TOS performed very well in this first round of on-site testing."
"Network connections between the MRO and CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science headquarters in Marsfield, NSW, will make it possible for more testing of the TOS to be done remotely," says Tim.
The TOS is an essential part of the computing suite being developed 'in house' by CSIRO for ASKAP. Another major feature of the ASKAP Computing team's work schedule is developing software that creates images from ASKAP’s surveys of the radio sky.
The 7.30 story 'Superscope for star gazers', on Australia and New Zealand's bid for the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, shows ASKAP Antennas 1 and 3 at the MRO.
Take a look at the 7.30 story showing the two ASKAP antennas moving in unison (at 3:18:00 on the video).
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