Australia Telescope National Facility

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)'s radio astronomy observatories are collectively known as the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF), with the facility supporting Australia's research in radio astronomy.

CSIRO currently operates three observatories as part of the ATNF, near the towns of Parkes, Coonabarabran and Narrabri in New South Wales. A fourth telescope, the next generation Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is currently being built at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia. These telescopes can be used together as a long baseline array for use in Very Long Baseline Interferometry.


Radio telescopes included in the ATNF:

  • The Australia Telescope Compact Array
  • The Parkes Observatory
  • The Mopra Observatory
  • The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder


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