by Kurt Warhurst (CASS)

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) consists of 2048 dual-polarization dipole antennas, arranged in 128 “tiles”, each a 4×4 array of dipoles. The dipoles are sensitive to radio waves in the 80–300 MHz frequency range. The array has no moving parts, and all telescope functions, including pointing, are performed by electronic manipulation of dipole signals. In Phase I of the Array, the majority (112) of the 128 tiles are scattered across a core region about 1.5 km in diameter, with the others placed at locations outside the core, yielding baseline distances of about 3 km to allow higher angular resolution observations. The array is currently being expanded for Phase II, which will double the number of antennas, and double the maximum baseline length to about 6km.