The largest manmade structure in the south east, the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope at Hoskingtown has celebrated its 50th anniversary. 

It is the largest single radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. Assistant Minister for Productivity, the Hon Dr Peter Hendy MP, joined the re-launch of the recently upgraded Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST), last Thursday stating that investment in science remains at the heart of the national economic agenda. 

The MOST is an example of Australia’s strength in radio astronomy and science; occupying an important part of Australia’s scientific history when the original telescope was opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies in 1965. 

At the time, it was one of the world’s most powerful astronomical instruments, and ushered in a new dawn of discovery for Australian science. 

More recently, collaboration between the University of Sydney, CSIRO, Swinburne University, and Australian National University through the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), has resulted in an upgrade of the telescope and the addition of a supercomputer on site. 

The telescope has two long arms, each 800 metres long, which gives a total collection area of approximately 18,000 square metres. 

The telescope is also one of the official Square Kilometre Array (SKA) pathfinder telescopes – set to be the world’s largest radio telescope – and is being used to pioneer new radio observing models relevant to SKA. 

The new upgrade gives the telescope 10 times the information and 4 times the search area, making it massively more efficient than the existing facility. 

The Molonglo Radio Telescope project has had a proud history over the last half century. But it is also an important part of the future.  More information on the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope is available at 

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/sifa/Main/MOST