Australia Telescope Compact Array

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Australia Telescope Compact Array
One of the rail mounted dishes.
Organization Paul Wild Observatory
Website http://www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/

The Australia Telescope Compact Array is a radio telescope at the Paul Wild Observatory, twenty five kilometres west of the town of Narrabri in Australia.

The telescope is an array of six identical 22 metre diameter dishes, which commonly operate in aperture synthesis mode to produce radio images. Five of the dishes can be moved along a three kilometre railway track. The sixth antenna is situated three kilometres west of the end of the main track. Each dish weighs about 270 tonnes.

The compact array is a part of the Australia Telescope National Facility network of radio telescopes. The array is frequently operated together with the sixty four metre dish at the Parkes Observatory and a single dish at Mopra (near Coonabarabran), to form a very long baseline interferometry array.

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Coordinates: 30°18′46″S, 149°33′01″E