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PULSE@Parkes

PULSE@Parkes is a free educational program where your high school students use the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, live and remotely to observe pulsars, analyse their data and interact with professional astronomers.

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Students

Do you want to use a giant radio telescope and observe some of the most extreme objects in the Universe? You can! You’ll control the Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, observe and analyse pulsars and meet our astronomers.

Photo of students observing with the Parkes radio telescope in the Science Operations Centre at Space and astronomy headquarters in Sydney.

Teachers

In PULSE@Parkes your students use the iconic 64m Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, remotely in real time to observe pulsars. Students experience observational astronomy, analyse their data and meet our astronomers.

Three CSIRO astronomers in the control room of the Parkes radio telescope

Professionals

All the data obtained with PULSE@Parkes is freely and publicly available for research purposes.

Transcript available from: https://www.csiro.au/CorporateAffairs/Vimeo/Parkes-radio-telescope-achieves-heritage-listing/video-transcript

Would you like your students to to use the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, live and remotely to observe pulsars, analyse their data and interact with professional astronomers? If so then PULSE@Parkes is the program for you.

Latest news

Photo of students observing with the Parkes radio telescope in the Science Operations Centre at Space and astronomy headquarters in Sydney.

New sessions now open

Applications are now open for sessions in February 2023. These free sessions will be held remotely so are open to […]

Virtual Work Experience Program

Virtual work experience

PULSE@Parkes will be the focus of students from across Australia taking part in CSIRO’s Virtual Work Experience Program. The students […]

Murriyang, Parkes Telescope receives Indigenous name

The iconic Parkes radio telescope has received a special honour from Australia’s first scientists and astronomers. Wiradjuri Elders gave the 64-metre […]

The Parkes radio telescope

64m Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang

10 Facts About The Dish

  • The selection of the Parkes telescope site took several years and had to fulfill key technical requirements, such as a stable geology and low radio-frequency interference.
  • It took three years to design and two years to build the telescope; it was officially opened on 31 October 1961.
  • The moving part of the telescope, above the concrete tower, weighs 1000 tonnes – more than two Boeing 747 aircraft. This moving part is not fixed to the top of the tower but just sits on it.
  • The telescope only receives signals from space, but never sends them.
  • Because the large surface of the dish catches the wind like a sail, the telescope must be 'stowed' (pointed directly up) when the wind speed exceeds 35 kilometres an hour.
  • It can detect radio waves from seven millimetres to four metres long, and be pointed with an accuracy of better than 11 arcseconds – about the width of a finger seen 150 metres away.
  • The telescope operates twenty four hours per day, through rain and cloud.
  • About 85 per cent of all time each year is scheduled for observing. Less than five per cent of that time is lost because of high winds or equipment problems. Most of the rest of the time each year is used for maintenance and testing.
  • Over half of all known pulsars were discovered using this telescope.
  • In 2020 local Wiradjuri elders gave the 64-metre telescope the name Murriyang, which represents the 'Skyworld' where a prominent creator spirit of the Wiradjuri Dreaming, Biyaami (Baiame), lives. Two smaller telescopes at CSIRO's Parkes Observatory also received Wiradjuri names.

Wiradjuri acknowledgement

The Parkes radio telescope is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is funded by the Australian Government for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. We acknowledge the Wiradjuri people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site.

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