Australia Telescope National Facility Explained

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)'s radio astronomy observatories are collectively known as the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF), with the facility supporting Australia's research in radio astronomy. It is part of CSIRO's business unit known as CSIRO Space and Astronomy.

CSIRO currently operates four observatories as part of the ATNF. Three are in New South Wales near the towns of Parkes, Coonabarabran and Narrabri.The fourth telescope, the next generation Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia. These telescopes can be used together as a long baseline array for use in very long baseline interferometry.

Radio telescopes included in the ATNF:

• The Australia Telescope Compact Array
• The Parkes Observatory
• The Mopra Observatory
• The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder

See also

• Australian Space Agency
• List of radio telescopes

References

• Book: Lang, Kenneth . A Companion to Astronomy and Astrophysics: Chronology and Glossary with Data Tables . https://books.google.com/books?id=aUjkKuaVIloC&pg=PA118 . 2007 . Springer Science & Business Media . 978-0-387-33367-0 . 118 . Australia Telescope National Facility .

External links

• ATNF Webpage
• CSIRO Webpage
• CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science
• Visiting the Parkes radio telescope