Warkworth Radio Observatory
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The Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory is a radio telescope observatory, located just south of
Warkworth, New Zealand Warkworth (Māori: ''Mahurangi'') is a town on the Northland Peninsula in the upper North Island of New Zealand. It is in the northern part of the Auckland Region. It is located on State Highway 1, north of Auckland and south of Whangārei, ...
, about 50 km north of the
Auckland CBD The Auckland Central Business District (CBD), or Auckland city centre, is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. It is the area in which Auckland was established in 1840, by William Hobson. It is New Zealand's l ...
. It is operated by the Institute for Radio Astronomy and Space Research,
Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology (AUT) ( mi, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT ...
. The WARK12M 12m Radio Telescope was constructed in 2008. In 2010, a licence to operate the
Telecom New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed-line telephone services, a mobile phone network, internet access services, and (through its Spark Digital division) ICT services to businesses. It was know ...
30m dish was granted, which led to the commissioning of the WARK30M 30m Radio Telescope. The first observations made in conjunction with the Australian Long Baseline Array took place in 2011.


History

The complex was first developed for long-range telecommunications, operated by the
New Zealand Post Office The New Zealand Post Office (NZPO) was a government department of New Zealand until 1987. It was previously (from 1881 to 1959) named the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department (NZ P&T). As a government department, the New Zealand Post Office ...
and opening on 17 July 1971. The station, primarily connecting to fourth generation Intelsat satellites, was used for satellite telephone circuits and television, including the broadcast of the 1974 British Commonwealth Games, held in
Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...
. The shallow valley site was chosen as it was sheltered from winds and radio noise, and the horizon elevation of only five degrees allowed the station to be useful for transmissions to low orbit satellites. The original 30-metre antenna was decommissioned on 18 June 2008 and demolished. A second antenna and station building were opened on 24 July 1984. This was removed from service in November 2010, after which the
Auckland University of Technology Auckland University of Technology (AUT) ( mi, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT ...
began using the facility for radio astronommy.


Technical information

A
hydrogen maser A hydrogen maser, also known as hydrogen frequency standard, is a specific type of maser that uses the intrinsic properties of the hydrogen atom to serve as a precision frequency reference. Both the proton and electron of a hydrogen atom have s ...
is installed on-site to provide the very accurate timing required by VLBI observations. The observatory has a 10Gbit/s connection to the
Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network The Kiwi Advanced Research and Education Network (KAREN), now known simply as the REANNZ Network, is a high-capacity, ultra high-speed national research and education network (NREN) connecting New Zealand's tertiary institutions, research organ ...
, providing high speed data transfers for files and e-VLBI as well as linking the site to the global
national research and education network A national research and education network (NREN) is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education communities within a country. It is usually distinguished by support for a high-speed backb ...
architecture.Weston, S., Natusch, T., Gulyaev, S., 2010, in Proceedings of the 17th Electronics New Zealand Conference, submitted (preprint astro-ph/1011.0227)


See also

*
Radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation comin ...
*
List of radio telescopes This is a list of radio telescopes – over one hundred – that are or have been used for radio astronomy. The list includes both single dishes and interferometric arrays. The list is sorted by region, then by name; unnamed telescopes are in r ...


References

Auckland University of Technology Radio observatories Astronomy institutes and departments Astronomical instruments Astronomical observatories in New Zealand {{NewZealand-university-stub