| 2nd of November 2020 |
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| The first radio-astronomy in WA? |
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In previous ADAPs we’ve celebrated the 75th anniversary of the first
radio astronomy observation in Australia. Much of the history of radio
astronomy in this country is focussed on the east coast, which got us
thinking: when did radio astronomy get going on the west coast?
The answer appears to be November 1988. It was Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations of what we now know to be the gravitationally lensed quasar PKS 1830-211. Along with the telescopes of the ATNF and an antenna at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, was this 15-m antenna belonging to the European Space Agency at its Gnangara station in Perth’s northern suburbs. The results were reported in Jauncey et al. (1988) ‘An unusually strong Einstein ring in the radio source PKS1830-211’, Nature vol.352 p.132. (Image credit: ESA) |