Astronomical Facilities of the University of Tasmania

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Astronomical Facilities ofthe University of
Tasmania

• Decadal Review Facilities Meeting 17 December
  2004

Simon Ellingsen and John Dickey
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Mt Pleasant 26 m
Ceduna 30 m
Mt Canopus 1m
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Overview

• The University of Tasmania operates three major
  astronomical research facilities
  
• The Mt Pleasant 26 m radio telescope.
• The Ceduna 30 m radio telescope.
• The Mt Canopus 1 m optical telescope.
• All of these are used in undergraduate and
  postgraduate student training.
  
• The radio telescopes also operate as part of a
  national facility instrument - the Australian
  Long Baseline Array.

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Mt Pleasant

• Southern-most radio telescope in the world,
  provides all long north-south baselines in LBA
  
• Only Australian telescope to regularly
  participate (40 per year) in geodetic VLBI.
  
• Other major projects
• Monitoring Vela pulsar for glitches.
• Monitoring of IntraDay Variable sources (IDVs).
• Searching and monitoring of molecular masers.

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Ceduna

• Provides all the east-west baselines in the LBA,
  significantly improving image quality.
  
• When not involved in VLBI is used for the COSMIC
  project (since March 2003) which continuously
  monitors a small sample of IDV sources.

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Mt Canopus

• Member of the PLANET collaboration since 1996.
• Equipped with a ccd camera and a high-speed
  photometer, with a multi-fibre spectrograph under
  construction
  
• Other projects include observations of low-mass
  x-ray binaries and optical monitoring of radio
  IDV sources.

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The Future (1-3 years)

• 10 Gbps fibre optic link to Mt Pleasant funded
  through ARC LIEF for 2005, to tie in with eLBA
  developments at ATNF/Swinburne.
  
• Complementary fibre link for Ceduna is being
  sought, but logistically more difficult
  (unfunded).
  
• Wide band feed upgrade for Mt Pleasant/Ceduna
  (unfunded).
  
• Single baseline interferometer for IDV monitoring
  being investigated for Mt Pleasant (unfunded).
  
• Involved in DIVA discussions/planning.

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The Future (3-5 years)

• DIVA telescope (phase 1 - one baseline, and phase
  2 - dedicated array)
  
• eVLB array (wideband, real time correlation)
• upgraded optical telescope for PLANET
  (gravitational lensing)
  
• U Tas is a minor partner in
• PILOT 2m Antarctic telescope (UNSW et al.)
• MWA (Search for 21-cm line from the Epoch of
  Reionization - MIT/Melbourne Uni/Harvard CfA)
  
• NTD (l20-50cm survey array - ATNF)