Parkes Telescope
The Parkes 64m Radio Telescope
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| Observatory |
Australia Telescope National Facility 
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| Location(s) |
Parkes, New South Wales, Australia
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| Coordinates | 33°00′00″S 148°15′44″E / 32.99994°S 148.26231°ECoordinates: 33°00′00″S 148°15′44″E / 32.99994°S 148.26231°E |
| Telescope style |
radio telescope
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| Diameter | 64 m (210 ft 0 in) |
| Website | www |
 Location of Parkes Observatory
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The Parkes Observatory (also known informally as "The Dish") is a radio telescope observatory, located 20 kilometres north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. It was one of several radio antennas used to receive live, televised images of the Apollo 11 moon landing on 20 July 1969. Its scientific contributions over the decades led the ABC to describe it as "the most successful scientific instrument ever built in Australia" after 50 years of operation.
The Parkes Observatory is run by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) as part of the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) network of radio telescopes. It is frequently operated together with other CSIRO radio telescopes, principally the array of six 22-metre (72 ft) dishes at the Australia Telescope Compact Array near Narrabri, and a single 22-metre (72 ft) dish at Mopra (near Coonabarabran), to form a very long baseline interferometry array.
The Parkes Observatory Visitors Centre allows visitors to view the dish as it moves. There are exhibits about the history of the telescope, astronomy, and space science, and a 3-D movie theatre.
The Parkes Radio Telescope, completed in 1961, was the brainchild of E.G. "Taffy" Bowen, chief of the CSIRO's Radiophysics Laboratory. During the Second World War, he had worked on radar development in the US and had made some powerful friends in the scientific community. Calling on this old boy network, he persuaded two philanthropic organisations, the Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation to fund half the cost of the telescope. It was this recognition and key financial support from the US that persuaded then prime minister Robert Menzies to agree to fund the rest of the project.
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Wikipedia