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AUSTRALIA HAS A LONG history of pioneering discovery in the fields
of radio and optical/ infrared astronomy. In between these wavebands lies
the field of millimetre astronomy. Impeded by both technology and the
Earth's atmosphere, the field has lagged behind traditional centimetre-band
radio astronomy, despite the rich spectrum from astrophysical molecules
which waits to be harvested. This is set to change, as both technology
has improved and ways of dealing with the atmosphere found. Australia
has decided to invest in a major upgrade of radio facilities into the millimetre
band, with the development of an interferometer (a networked
collection of telescopes) at Narrabri. However,
no plans for a large single-dish millimetre telescope necessary to find the sources for an interferometer to
image were in place. UNSW has now stepped into the breach, supporting
the extension of the Mopra telescope, near Coonabarabran, to a 22m diameter
from 15m, making it the largest millimetre telescope in the southern
hemisphere, where the star-forming heart of our Milky Way galaxy can be seen.
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The UNSW now run Mopra for the winter months of the year, when the
humidity is lowest and mm-observing at its best. We have appointed Ramesh to be
the "Friend of the Telescope" and he is
busy instigating a series of upgrades to the telescope to greatly increase
its efficiency, and designing a science program to exploit the new potential.
A formal ceremony to commemorate the
"first light" of the upgraded telescope led by Deputy
Vice-Chancellor Professor Chris Fell, and Director of
the Australia Telescope, Professor Ron Ekers. It was followed by a
graduate-level residential workshop in millimetre astronomy. A dozen research
students from around Australia were taught about the astronomy, the physics and
the technology behind the field. They combined this with observing
sessions with the telescope, reducing their data and even giving short talks on
their results.
We now have the nucleus of a trained millimetre community, ready to
begin exploration of the Galactic plane in earnest in June 2000.
Mopra
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Michael Burton
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