[Music plays]
(Narrator) Take a telescope, terrific for looking at things
which are just a wee bit far away
as long as there's nothing in the way.
The bigger the telescope the further it can see
but the universe is a very big place.
(Darrel) Excuse me. It's very dark out here.
(Narrator) And if we relied just on what we could see out there
we'd be getting only part of the picture so to speak.
(Darrel) Oh, I see.
(Narrator) That's where radio telescopes come in
like this one at Parkes.
It's not looking, it's sort of listening.
You see, the whole universe is pulsing with radio energy.
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Not that sort of radio, radio energy given off by stars
and a whole lot of other objects in space,
radio energy which needs special receivers
because it's incredibly weak.
At Parkes these weak signals from far away
are collected and amplified so they can be measured and analysed.
Oh, and by the way one of the other big advantages of
radio telescopes is that you can use them night...
(Darrel) And day!
(Narrator) But who on earth would be interested in
radio energy from space you might ask?
(Darrel) Who on earth would be interested in radio energy from space?
(Narrator) Astronomers actually.
(Darrel) Oh.
(Narrator) It can tell them heaps about what's out there
like the shape of our galaxy, how fast it's rotating,
the size of quasars, molecular clouds in space.
(Darrel) What about UFOs?
(Narrator) It's got nothing to do with UFOs and little green men.
(Darrel) Aww!
(Narrator) The telescope's so good at its job it's working round the clock
and there's a waiting list to use it.
(Darrel) Come on, come on. Can I have a go now?
(Narrator) Australian astronomers share the telescope
with visiting scientists. They're dying to work here.
When you go to a show you pick the best seat you can afford.
It gives the best view. Overseas astronomers come
to Parkes because it's one of the best places on earth
for looking at The Milky Way where a lot of the action is.
Parkes has worked with lots of interesting people
on lots of interesting jobs.
Along the way the surface of the dish has been upgraded
to make it even more versatile and the receiving equipment
has been replaced with the latest state of the art technology.
After all if you're going to play the game
you've got to keep up with the times.
A lot of things have changed since 1961 you know.
This is the control room where the amplified
radio signals are sent for analysis.
There aren't any guided tours here. There just isn't room.
(Darrel) Oh, what does this button do?
(Narrator) Hey... besides you might touch something you shouldn't.
It only takes a few taps and the astronomer directs a thousand
tonnes of dish to the next part of the sky he wants to observe
and all with an accuracy of a minute fraction of a degree.
(Darrel) Oh, just like driving the family car?
(Narrator) Not exactly. It actually has a super
sophisticated guidance system to steer the dish.
(Darrel) Oh, sort of power steering?
(Narrator) Well yes, I suppose you could
refer to it as being similar to power steering.
And if you're impressed by team driving like this
you'll be amazed at what a team of telescopes can do.
With heaps of ingenuity and some sneaky tricks
the Parkes dish can be coordinated
with seven other dishes across the countryside
to all focus at the same point in the sky.
Together they act like a giant 300 kilometre wide telescope
even more sensitive to radio waves from far, far away.
This team effort is collectively called the Australia Telescope
and it was put together as a big
bicentennial present for Australia in 1988.
(Darrel) Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday bicentennial Australia 1988...
Is there anything the Parkes radio telescope can't do?
(Narrator) Not much. Oh, it's really moving.
(Darrel) Oh, come on. It doesn't actually move that fast.
(Narrator) Ahh, we've speeded it up a little
bit just for the purpose of the demonstration.
(Speaker 3) Do anything interesting at work today dear?
(Speaker 4) Oh, nothing much. We did find a quasar
over 20,000,000,000 light years away.
That was just before lunch. Oh, and after lunch darling you...
(Narrator) When you think how weak you'd be if you
just travelled that far you can see why the telescope
needs to catch as much of the signal as possible
and then amplify it a million, million times.
(Darrel) Once it's measured and recorded all the
astronomer has to do is work out what it means.
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