2013-08-17 Murchison Astrofest and Murchison Radio Astronomy Field Trip
The Oval
The sports club for the cricket oval served as the base of operations for the Murchison Astrofest. A good turn-out was expected and despite the bright night (we would have preferred a dark night), we still had over 300 people from the surrounding communities.
Telescopes at the line
Setting Up
Solar Viewing
Sunrise at the Murchison Settlement
Sunrise at the Settlement
Murchison Radio Observatory
The AGWA and Geraldton Astro members begin our tour of the facility.
MRO - Introduction
MRO - Introduction
MRO - "The Door"
A double-RF "airlock" - only one door should be open at a time as electronic interference from equipment inside the facility "leaks out" and would be detected by the antenna arrays. They were off-line that day of our visit.
MRO - Inside the cage
Once inside, there were no windows. The whole facility is encased in a Faraday cage to keep the noise in.
MRO - Inside
MRO - Inside
Kirsten Gottschalk from ICRAR chats with AGWA members.
MRO - Workstation
(and I thought my workshop was a mess)
MRO - Server Room
Another RF-sealed door separates the server room from the rest of the facility - another layer to keep the "noise" in.
MRO - Server Room Door
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
Over 1 TB of data a second is received by the processing centre.
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
Closer look at one of the fibre-optic ribbons.
MRO - Server Room
An even closer look at one of the fibre-optic ribbons.
MRO - Server Room
Rusty the sparky about to shut the whole thing down.
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Server Room
MRO - Emergency Room
Fully equipped emergency medical facility
