ASKAP links live to ICRI2014

The advantage of remote accessibility to the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) was demonstrated this week during a live cross to a conference in Greece, via the Sydney headquarters of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CASS).

The International Conference on Research Infrastructure (ICRI2014) is being held this week in Athens. From the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) exhibition stand, conference delegates were granted a unique opportunity to connect with the teams working on the SKA precursor telescopes at SKA sites in Western Australia and South Africa via a live video link.

On Thursday and Friday evening (Sydney time), CASS Deputy Chief Sarah Peace and ASKAP Senior Commissioning Scientist John Reynolds called in from the CASS headquarters to talk about the SKA and the SKA Precursors underway at the MRO, CSIRO's Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA).

Via the live link, the group was also able to check in on the ASKAP telescope using the telescope's webcams and dedicated software developed in house by the ASKAP team, which allows for remote operation of the ASKAP antennas and associated digital systems while commissioning activities are underway at the MRO.

Later on in the day there was also a live link to Cape Town and the South African SKA site in the Karoo, where the first MeerKAT antenna was recently inaugurated.

"It was a great opportunity to speak directly with conference delegates and take advantage of our remote accessibility to the MRO," said CASS Deputy Chief Sarah Pearce, "We're pleased to have been part of the conference at ICRI2014."

For further updates from the conference, follow the SKA Telescope on Twitter.

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