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


Famous quotes containing the words australia, telescope, national and/or facility:

    “It is very considerably smaller than Australia and British Somaliland put together. As things stand at present there is nothing much the Texans can do about this, and ... they are inclined to shy away from the subject in ordinary conversation, muttering defensively about the size of oranges.”
    —Alex Atkinson, British humor writer. repr. In Present Laughter, ed. Alan Coren (1982)

    “The telescope at one end of his beat,
    And at the other end the microscope....”
    —Robert Frost (1874–1963)

    “In my public statements I have earnestly urged that there rested upon government many responsibilities which affect the moral and spiritual welfare of our people. The participation of women in elections has produced a keener realization of the importance of these questions and has contributed to higher national ideals. Moreover, it is through them that our national ideals are ingrained in our children.”
    —Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)

    “The three great ends which a statesman ought to propose to himself in the government of a nation, are,—1. Security to possessors; 2. Facility to acquirers; and, 3. Hope to all.”
    —Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)