Picture Album of the
DEEP SPACE NETWORK

64-Meter Antenna at Parkes, Australia

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The Parkes design contrasted with that of the giant steerable telescopes, the largest of which at that time was Lowell's 76.2-meter (250-foot) antenna at Jodrell Bank, near Manchester, England. Parkes is similar in design to the wartime radar antenna SCR 584, built in the early 1940s and used all over the world.

The Parkes antenna is servocontrolled and, when completed in 1962, was one of the largest devices ever driven in this way. It is capable of tracking celestial objects across the sky to an accuracy of fifteen seconds of arc - a precision which had been unattainable only a few years before this antenna was built. Other unique features include a dish structure that self-adjusts to compensate for the effects of distortion due to gravity. When first built, the surface accuracy was already good enough for it to operate at a wavelength of 10 centimeters. In the next few years it was upgraded so that a substantial fraction of the central surface could operate at millimeter wavelengths.

1950's      1960's      1970's      1980's      1990's