Astronomical Facilities ofthe University of Tasmania

Decadal Review – Facilities Meeting 17 December 2004

Simon Ellingsen and John Dickey

University of Tasmania Facilities

Mt Pleasant 26 m

Mt Canopus 1m

Ceduna 30 m

University of Tasmania Facilities

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.

University of Tasmania Facilities

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 (IDV’s).– Searching and monitoring of molecular masers.

University of Tasmania Facilities

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.

University of Tasmania Facilities

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.

University of Tasmania Facilities

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.

University of Tasmania Facilities

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 (20-50cm survey array - ATNF)