Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T12:19:34.510Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early Australian Optical and Radio Observations of Centaurus A

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

Peter Robertson ,
Glen Cozens ,
Wayne Orchiston ,
Bruce Slee  and
Harry Wendt
Peter Robertson*
Affiliation:
Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia
Glen Cozens
Affiliation:
Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia
Wayne Orchiston
Affiliation:
Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia
Bruce Slee
Affiliation:
Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia CSIRO Astronomy and Space Sciences, PO Box 76, Epping, NSW 2121, Australia
Harry Wendt
Affiliation:
Centre for Astronomy, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia
*
CCorresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The discovery of the radio source Centaurus A and its optical counterpart NGC 5128 were important landmarks in the history of Australian astronomy. NGC 5128 was first observed in August 1826 by James Dunlop during a survey of southern objects at the Parramatta Observatory, west of the settlement at Sydney Cove. The observatory had been founded a few years earlier by Thomas Brisbane, the new governor of the British colony of New South Wales. Just over 120 years later, John Bolton, Gordon Stanley and Bruce Slee discovered the radio source Centaurus A at the Dover Heights field station in Sydney, operated by CSIRO's Radiophysics Laboratory (the forerunner to CSIRO Astronomy and Space Sciences). This paper will describe this early historical work and summarize further studies of Centaurus A by other Radiophysics groups up to 1960.

Keywords

Centaurus ANGC 5128radio galaxieshistory of Australian astronomyParramatta ObservatoryRadiophysics Laboratory
Type
Research Article
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 27 , Special Issue 4: The Many Faces of Centaurus A , 2010 , pp. 402 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2010

References

Bergman, G. F. J., 1967, Rümker, Christian Carl Ludwig (1788–1862), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 2 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press), 403Google Scholar
Bolton, J. G., 1948a, Letter to E. G. Bowen 15 June 1948 (National Archives of Australia)Google Scholar
Bolton, J. G., 1948b, Nature, 162, 141CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, J. G., 1948c, New Zealand Cosmic Noise Expedition and Dover Heights Report No. 5: Position of Centaurus A, Radiophysics Laboratory (National Archives of Australia)Google Scholar
Bolton, J. G., 1953, Observatory, 73, 26Google Scholar
Bolton, J. G., 1982, PASA, 4, 349CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, J. G. & Slee, O. B., 1953, AuJPh, 6, 420Google Scholar
Bolton, J. G. & Stanley, G. J., 1948, Nature, 161, 312CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, J. G., Stanley, G. J. & Slee, O. B., 1949, Nature, 164, 101CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolton, J. G., Stanley, G. J. & Slee, O. B., 1954a, AuJPh, 7, 110Google Scholar
Bolton, J. G., Westfold, K. C., Stanley, G. J. & Slee, O. B., 1954b, AuJPh, 7, 96Google Scholar
Bowen, E. G., 1948, Letter to the CSIR Executive, undated (National Archives of Australia)Google Scholar
Bracewell, R. N., Cooper, B. F. C. & Cousins, T. E., 1962, Nature, 195, 1289CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brisbane, T. M., 1835, Catalogue of 7385 Stars, Chiefly in the Southern Hemisphere (London: Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty)Google Scholar
Cooper, B. F. C. & Price, R. M., 1962, Nature, 195, 1084CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunlop, J., 1828, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 118, 113Google Scholar
Dunlop, J., 1829, Mem. Roy. Astron. Soc. London, 3, 257Google Scholar
Gardner, F. F. & Whiteoak, J. B., 1962, PhRev, 9, 197Google Scholar
Haynes, R., Haynes, R., Malin, D. & McGee, R. X., 1996, Explorers of the Southern Sky (Sydney: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Herschel, J. F. W., 1848, Results of Astronomical Observations made during the years 1834, 5, 6, 7, 8 at the Cape of Good Hope, being a completion of a telescopic survey of the whole surface of the visible heavens commenced in 1825 (London: Smith, Elder & Co.)Google Scholar
Hey, J. S., 1946, Nature, 157, 47CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hey, J. S., Parsons, S. J. & Phillips, J. W., 1946, Nature, 158, 234CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heydon, J. D., 1966, Brisbane, Sir Thomas Makdougall (1773–1860), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 1 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press), 151Google Scholar
Hindman, J. V. & Wade, C. M., 1959, AuJPh, 12, 258Google Scholar
Israel, F. P., 1998, A&AR, 8, 237Google Scholar
Lomb, N., 2004, Hist. Rec. Aust. Sci., 15, 211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCready, L. L., Pawsey, J. L. & Payne-Scott, R., 1947, Proc. R. Soc. London A, 190, 357Google Scholar
McGee, R. X. & Bolton, J. G., 1954, Nature, 173, 985CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGee, R. X., Slee, O. B. & Stanley, G. J., 1955, AuJPh, 8, 347Google Scholar
Mills, B. Y., 1952a, AuJSciRes, 5, 266Google Scholar
Mills, B. Y., 1952b, Nature, 170, 1063CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, B. Y., 1952c, AuJSciRes, 5, 245Google Scholar
Mills, B. Y., 1953, AuJPh, 6, 452Google Scholar
Mills, B. Y. & Thomas, A. B., 1951, AuJSciRes, 4, 158Google Scholar
Morrison-Low, A. D., 2004, Hist. Rec. Aust. Sci., 15, 151CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, R., 2008, Austral. Sci, 29, 16Google Scholar
Orchiston, W., 1994, AuJPh, 47, 541Google Scholar
Orchiston, W., 2005, Dr Elizabeth Alexander: first female radio astronomer, In The New Astronomy: Opening the Electromagnetic Window and Expanding our View of Planet Earth (New York: Springer), 71CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orchiston, W. & Slee, O. B., 2002a, AAO Newsl., 101, 25Google Scholar
Orchiston, W. & Slee, O. B., 2002b, J. Astr. Hist. Heritage, 5, 21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orchiston, W. & Slee, O. B., 2005, The Radiophysics field stations and the early development of radio astronomy, in The New Astronomy: Opening the Electromagnetic Window and Expanding our View of Planet Earth (New York: Springer), 119CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payne-Scott, R., Yabsley, D. E. & Bolton, J. G., 1947, Nature, 160, 256CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piddington, J. H. & Minnett, H. C., 1951, AuJSciRes, 4, 459Google Scholar
Piddington, J. H. & Trent, G. H., 1956a, AuJPh, 9, 74Google Scholar
Piddington, J. H. & Trent, G. H., 1956b, AuJPh, 9, 481Google Scholar
Rivett, C., 1988, Parramatta Bicentenary: Australia (Parramatta: Richard Pike)Google Scholar
Robertson, P., 1992, Beyond Southern Skies: Radio Astronomy and the Parkes Telescope (Sydney: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Saunders, C. D., 1990, Astronomy in Colonial New South Wales: 1788 to 1858, Sydney, 151Google Scholar
Saunders, S. D., 2004, Hist. Rec. Aust. Sci., 15, 177CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Service, J., 1890, Thir Notandums, Being the Literary Recreations of Laird Canticarl of Mongrynen: To Which is Appended a Biographical Sketch of James Dunlop, Edinburgh, 135Google Scholar
Shain, C. A., 1951, AuJSciRes, 4, 258Google Scholar
Shain, C. A., 1958, AuJPh, 11, 517Google Scholar
Shain, C. A. & Higgins, C. S., 1954, AuJPh, 7, 130Google Scholar
Sheridan, K. V., 1958, AuJPh, 11, 400Google Scholar
Slee, O. B., 1977, AuJPh, Astrophys. Suppl No. 43Google Scholar
Stanley, G. J. & Slee, B., 1950, AuJSciRes, 3, 234Google Scholar
Wade, C. M., 1959, AuJPh, 12, 471Google Scholar
Wood, H., 1966, Dunlop, James (1793–1848), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 1 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press), 338Google Scholar