|
It was ten years ago this week that the
Parkes Testbed Facility saw "first light" with a prototype
Phased Array Feed (PAF).
The 12m diameter Testbed Facility antennas was built by
Patriot Antenna Systems in 2008 to provide a dedicated platform to test PAFs
and other systems being developed for ASKAP.
The PTF is located 400 metres east of the 64m Parkes "Dish".
(And if you look closely at the image above, you can also see the
60-foot (18m) Kennedy antenna in the foreground of the 64m telescope.
More of this antenna in a future ADAP!)
In more recent time, the Parkes Testbed Facility was used
for a year-long program
to monitor the Vela pulsar and
investigate the stability of the PAF beam weights over time.
(Image credit: Ettore Carretti)
|
