1. Astronomical Facilities of the University of Tasmania Decadal Review – Facilities Meeting 17 December 2004 Simon Ellingsen and John Dickey

2. University of Tasmania Facilities Mt Pleasant 26 m Mt Canopus 1m Ceduna 30 m

3. University of Tasmania Facilities Overview The University of Tasmania operates three major astronomical research facilities : –The Mt Pleasant 26 m radio telescope. –The Ceduna 30 m radio telescope. –The Mt Canopus 1 m optical telescope. All of these are used in undergraduate and postgraduate student training. The radio telescopes also operate as part of a national facility instrument - the Australian Long Baseline Array.

4. University of Tasmania Facilities Mt Pleasant Southern-most radio telescope in the world, provides all long north-south baselines in LBA Only Australian telescope to regularly participate (~40 per year) in geodetic VLBI. Other major projects : –Monitoring Vela pulsar for glitches. –Monitoring of IntraDay Variable sources (IDV’s). –Searching and monitoring of molecular masers.

5. University of Tasmania Facilities Ceduna Provides all the east-west baselines in the LBA, significantly improving image quality. When not involved in VLBI is used for the COSMIC project (since March 2003) which continuously monitors a small sample of IDV sources.

6. University of Tasmania Facilities Mt Canopus Member of the PLANET collaboration since 1996. Equipped with a ccd camera and a high- speed photometer, with a multi-fibre spectrograph under construction Other projects include observations of low- mass x-ray binaries and optical monitoring of radio IDV sources.

7. University of Tasmania Facilities The Future (1-3 years) 10 Gbps fibre optic link to Mt Pleasant funded through ARC LIEF for 2005, to tie in with eLBA developments at ATNF/Swinburne. Complementary fibre link for Ceduna is being sought, but logistically more difficult (unfunded). Wide band feed upgrade for Mt Pleasant/Ceduna (unfunded). Single baseline interferometer for IDV monitoring being investigated for Mt Pleasant (unfunded). Involved in DIVA discussions/planning.

8. University of Tasmania Facilities The Future (3-5 years) DIVA telescope (phase 1 - one baseline, and phase 2 - dedicated array) eVLB array (wideband, real time correlation) upgraded optical telescope for PLANET (gravitational lensing) U Tas is a minor partner in: PILOT 2m Antarctic telescope (UNSW et al.) MWA (Search for 21-cm line from the Epoch of Reionization - MIT/Melbourne Uni/Harvard CfA) NTD ( 20-50cm survey array - ATNF)