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Wednesday October 5th marks the 10th Anniversary of the Official Opening of the
ASKAP telescope at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory.
Special guests at the Opening Ceremony
included Senator Chris Evans (Federal Minister for Tertiary Education,
Skills, Jobs, Science and Research),
John Day (WA Minister for Science and Innovation),
Megan Clark (CSIRO Chief Executive),
Phil Diamond (Director of CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science),
and members of the Wajarri Yamatji community.
The Opening took place after the assembly of all 36 ASKAP antennas had been
completed and the first of the Mk I PAFs installed.
By 2013, Mk I PAFs had been installed on six antennas to form BETA
(the Boolardy Engineering Test Array),
in 2014 the Galaxy supercomputer came on-line at Pawsey,
in 2015 installation of Mk II PAFs started
(with the 36th PAF being installed in 2019), and
in 2016 ASKAP Early Science observations commenced.
Phase I of ASKAP Pilot Surveys and the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) both started in 2019,
with Phase II of ASKAP Pilot Surveys starting in 2021,
and the new Setonix supercomputer was commissioned at Pawsey in 2022.
ASKAP has already produced
over 170 scientific papers, with final preparations now being made
before the commencement of full ASKAP Surveys.
The image above shows Megan Clark watching on as Senator Chris Evans officially opened ASKAP by pushing the
big button that caused the antennas nearby to perform a choreographed dance.
(Image credit: Dragonfly media/CRAIA)
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