Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-06T04:28:22.491Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - Australian Radio Observatories

from Part 2 - Radio Observatories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2016

David Leverington
Get access

Summary

Early Australian Radio Astronomy

Solar Observations

The Australian Radiophysics Laboratory was created at Sydney in 1939 as a secret branch of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It was to undertake radar research and development during the Second World War in collaboration with British laboratories and the Australian military.(1) The laboratory was highly successful, but as the war was coming to an end in 1945 the Australian government began to consider how its role should be changed. To assist in the decision Edward G. (Taffy) Bowen, who was soon to take over as the head of the reconstituted Radiophysics Laboratory, assembled a series of papers for a meeting of the CSIR Council in July of that year. These resulted in a decision to concentrate future research in three areas, namely radio, vacuum, and rain and cloud physics. Bowen was to lead the rain and cloud physics group whilst Joe Pawsey, who had studied under John Ratcliffe at Cambridge in the 1930s, led the radio group. In October 1945, the radio group began to study the effect of the Sun on radio communications. This followed receipt of a report that a New Zealand military radar station on Norfolk Island had detected noise at 200 MHz (wavelength λ 1.5 m) that appeared to be connected with the Sun.

To study the Sun, Pawsey, Ruby Payne-Scott and Lindsay McCready initially used a Royal Australian Air Force wartime radar antenna on the coast at Collaroy 400 ft (120 m) above the sea near Sydney. It consisted of 40 half-wave dipoles operating at 200 MHz. After only three weeks of data they concluded that there was a close correlation between the total area of the Sun covered by sunspots and the magnitude of the radio noise which had varied by a factor of 30. Unfortunately the antenna could not be used to track the source in altitude but measurements of the noise along the horizon at sunrise and sunset clearly showed that it was associated with the Sun.(2)

Type
Chapter
Information
Observatories and Telescopes of Modern Times
Ground-Based Optical and Radio Astronomy Facilities since 1945
 , pp. 263 - 294
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Sullivan, Woodruff T., Cosmic Noise; A History of Early Radio Astronomy, Cambridge University Press, 2009, p. 120.
2. Orchiston, Wayne, Slee, Bruce and Burman, Ron, The Genesis of Solar Radio Astronomy in Australia, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 9, No. 1, 2006, pp. 35–56.Google Scholar
3. Stewart, Ronald, et al., The Radiophysics Field Station at Penrith, New South Wales, and the World's First Solar Radiospectrograph, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 13, No. 1, 2010, pp. 2–15.Google Scholar
4. Bolton, J. G., and Stanley, G. J., Observations on the Variable Source of Cosmic Radio Frequency Radiation in the Constellation of Cygnus, Australian Journal of Scientific Research, 1, 1948, pp. 58–69.Google Scholar
5. Orchiston, Wayne, and Slee, Bruce, The Radiophysics Field Stations and the Early Development of Radio Astronomy, in Orchiston, Wayne, (ed.), The New Astronomy: Opening the Electromagnetic Window and Expanding our View of Planet Earth, Springer, 2005, pp. 119–168.
6. Sullivan, Woodruff T., Cosmic Noise; A History of Early Radio Astronomy, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 277–280.
7. Kerr, F. J., Early Days in Radio and Radar Astronomy in Australia, in Sullivan, W. T., (ed.), The Early Years of Radio Astronomy; Reflections Fifty Years after Jansky's Discovery, Cambridge University Press, 1984, pp. 136–137.
8. Wild, J. P., Murray, J. D., and Rowe, W. C., Harmonics in the Spectra of Solar Radio Disturbances, Australian Journal of Physics, 7, 1954, pp. 439–459.Google Scholar
9. Wendt, Harry, Orchiston, Wayne, and Slee, Bruce, W. N. Christiansen and the Development of the Solar Grating Array, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 11, No. 3, 2008, pp. 173–184.Google Scholar
10. Piddington, J. H., and Minnett, H. C., Observations of Galactic Radiation at Frequencies of 1210 and 3000 Mc/s, Australian Journal of Scientific Research, 4, 1951, pp. 459–475.Google Scholar
11. Wendt, Harry, Orchiston, Wayne, and Slee, Bruce, W. N. Christiansen and the Initial Australian Investigation of the 21 cm Hydrogen Line, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 11, No. 3, 2008, pp. 185–193.Google Scholar
12. Kerr, F. J., Early Days in Radio and Radar Astronomy in Australia, in Sullivan, W. T., (ed.), The Early Years of Radio Astronomy; Reflections Fifty Years after Jansky's Discovery, Cambridge University Press, 1984, p. 139.
13. Wendt, Harry, Orchiston, Wayne, and Slee, Bruce, W. N. Christiansen and the Development of the Solar Grating Array, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 11, No. 3, 2008, p. 175.Google Scholar
14. Sullivan, Woodruff T., Cosmic Noise; A History of Early Radio Astronomy, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp. 330–331.
15. Slee, Bruce, Early Australian Measurements of Angular Structure in Discrete Radio Sources, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 8, No. 2, 2005, pp. 97–106.Google Scholar
16. Davies, R. D., A History of the Potts Hill Radio Astronomy Field Station, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 8, No. 2, 2005, p. 93.Google Scholar
17. Orchiston, Wayne, From the Solar Corona to Clusters of Galaxies: The Radio Astronomy of Bruce Slee, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 21, 2004, pp. 23–71.Google Scholar
18. Slee, Bruce, Early Australian Measurements of Angular Structure in Discrete Radio Sources, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 8, No. 2, 2005, p. 103.Google Scholar
19. Orchiston, Wayne, and Mathewson, Don, Chris Christiansen and the Chris Cross, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 12, No. 1, 2009, pp. 11–32.Google Scholar
20. Orchiston, Wayne, and Slee, Bruce, Ingenuity and Initiative in Australian Radio Astronomy: the Dover Heights ‘Hole-in-the-Ground’ antenna, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 5, No. 1, 2002, pp. 21–34.Google Scholar
21. Munns, David P. D., A Single Sky; How an International Community Forged the Science of Radio Astronomy, The MIT Press, 2013, p. 124.
22. Minnett, Harry, The Construction of the Parkes 210-ft Radio Telescope in Goddard, D. E., and Milne, D. K., (eds.), Parkes: Thirty Years of Radio Astronomy, CSIRO Publishing, 1994, pp. 12–18.
23. Minnett, H. C., The Australian 210-foot Radio Telescope, Sky and Telescope, October 1962, pp. 184–189.
24. Kerr, Frank, The Proposal for a Giant Radio Telescope, in Goddard, D. E., and Milne, D. K. (eds.), Parkes: Thirty Years of Radio Astronomy, CSIRO Publishing, 1994, pp. 7–11.
25. Kerr, Frank J., Australia's 210-foot Radio Telescope Project, Sky and Telescope, October 1959, pp. 666–668.Google Scholar
26. Bolton, J. G., Gardner, F. F., and Mackey, M. B., The Parkes Catalogue of Radio Sources Declination Zone – 20° to – 60°, Australian Journal of Physics, 17, 1964, pp. 340–372.Google Scholar
27. Hazard, C., Mackey, M. B., and Shimmins, A. J., Investigation of the Radio Source 3C 273 by the Method of Lunar Occultations, Nature, 197, 1963, pp. 1037–1039.Google Scholar
28. Orchiston, Wayne, The Parkes 18-m Antenna: A Brief Historical Evaluation, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 15, No. 2, 2012, pp. 96–99.Google Scholar
29. Yabsley, D. E., Millimetre Wavelength Performance of the New 16.7 m Surface of the Parkes Radio Telescope, Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 3, No. 2, September 1977, pp. 113–115.Google Scholar
30. Higgs, A. J., The Australian Radioheliograph Project, Sky and Telescope, July 1968, pp. 11–14.Google Scholar
31. Maxwell, Alan, Radio Emissions from Solar Flares, Sky and Telescope, July 1973, pp. 4–9.Google Scholar
32. McAdam, Bruce, Molonglo Observatory: Building the Cross and MOST, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 11, No. 1, 2008, pp. 63–70.Google Scholar
33. McAdam, Bruce, Molonglo Observatory: Building the Cross and MOST, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, 11, No. 1, 2008, pp. 68–69.Google Scholar
34. Haynes, Raymond, et al., Explorers of the Southern Sky; A History of Australian Astronomy, Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 414–418.
35. Norris, Ray, The Australia Telescope, Sky and Telescope, December 1988, pp. 615–620.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×