Compact Array 20th Anniversary Open Day

Have a close-up look at the most advanced radio telescope in the southern hemisphere. The Australia Telescope Compact Array near Narrabri will open its doors to the public on Saturday the 19th of July 2008. Open Day visitors will be treated to the following:

Antenna tours (enclosed shoes must be worn)
Control building tours
Astronomer talks
Ask an expert
Art display

Our Visitors Centre will be the hub for many of the activities however visitors will be able to go behind the scenes and find out exactly how this world-leading radio telescope operates and what it is like working at the forefront of astronomical research. Open Day activities run from 10 am till 4 pm on the Saturday.

Important Information

Go on an antennae tour of the Compact Array. Experts from the observatory will take you around one of the five dishes, explain how it works and answer your questions. Visitors wishing to go on an antennae tour will need to wear enclosed shoes.

Astronomy talks will take place throughout the day in the Visitors Centre and cover topics such as:

What is radio astronomy?
The Compact Array
Indigenous astronomy.

Artist-in-Residence

This year the Artist-in-Residence will be Christine Hill, an award-winning artist with a special interest in watercolour painting.

Christine will spend two weeks at the ATNF drawing and painting. She says:

There's such a huge variety of inspiration there - the wide-open countryside and incredible contrast between the high-tech and the rural. I visit Narrabri several times a year, and am always busy enjoying family activities, so the Residency time will be a fantastic opportunity to just paint! This really is Big Sky country, and I shall be busy creating a kind of visual diary. There will be figurative paintings and drawings of the landscape, life and work at the Telescope, as well as more abstract, imaginative works inspired by the night sky and astronomers' images from outer space.

Artist-in-Residence Public Activities

Leading up to the Open Day there will be children's school holiday workshops and an adult workshop at the Craft Shop in Narrabri. At the observatory on the Open Day itself, there will be an exhibition, art demonstrations and a public workshop.

1. School Holiday Activity - Children's Art Workshops at the Telescope (see directions at the end of the page))

Date: Thursday 10 & Tuesday 15 July
Time: 10.00 am - 12.00 pm.
Ages: Approx 8 - 10 years old
Class size: limit of 15 per class
Registrations: phone Australia Telescope 6790 4000 (essential)

When the children come out to the ATNF, Christine will show them paintings and drawings done during her visit and talk about the telescopes and the observers and what they do. In the Visitor Centre they will study images from outer space and think about how they inspire a work of art, then with heavy paper, a little white paint and high quality oil-pastels, bright and inspired art will be created!

2. Open Day Activities at the Telescope - Sat 19 July

Display of children's artwork from the Holiday Activity
Display of artwork completed by Artist-in-Residence
Talk by the artist about those works: 12 midday - approx 1 hour
Basic Watercolour Painting Workshop
- Time: 10.00 am - 12.00 midday
- Cost: $10 fee
- Materials: painting materials supplied or bring your own
- Registrations: phone Australia Telescope 6790 4000 (essential)
Drawing for Everyone
All Day – Artist’s supervision from 1.00 pm
Drawing materials supplied. No registration, no fee
Just come along, look around, be inspired – and draw!
Drawing for Children - supervised drawing, materials will be available.

Watercolour Workshop at the Narrabri Craft Shop - Sat 12 July

Time: 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm
Cost: $40 (Cost includes pack of watercolour papers for each participant)
Materials: Supplied
Registrations: phone Narrabri Craft shop 6792 2845 (essential)

This workshop will concentrate on helping watercolourists with the dual challenges of choice of paper and choice of paints - and how that choice may affect their finished work. Emphasis on paper choice and three colour work.

How to get to the observatory

When travelling from the south:: You reach the outskirts of Narrabri (either from Coonabarabran or Gunnedah) in a large roundabout. Continue on towards the township proper crossing a railway track and then arriving at another large roundabout. Here you turn left (away from Narrabri) and follow the sign to the "Australia Telescope". Another few hundred metres later, veer right (keeping the water tower on your left). Soon afterwards you pass the Wilga Hotel on your left.
When travelling from the town centre:: Leaving the town centre heading south towards Sydney or Coonabarabran, you cross the main river flow (Narrabri Creek) and then the old dry riverbed of the Namoi River. Shortly afterwards follow the signs to "Australia Telescope" turning right (Ugoa St), left around the Narrabri Lake (Walowa St), and then right again at the Wilga Hotel (Goobar St - which turns into Yarrie Lake Road).

From the Wilga Hotel, keep going west, past the large Cargill cottonseed oil factory on your left, crossing a railway track and the usually dry Bohena Ck. About 20km from town there is a sign directing you right to the "Australia Telescope". Follow this tarred road 2km, and you are there. The Observers' Lodge is the first building that you come to, on your left.

Warning!
There are often kangaroos and sheep grazing on the site: please drive carefully, particularly approaching dawn and dusk. Headlights dazzle kangaroos (and other animals), but they tend to react less suicidally if you 'dip' the headlights when approaching them. During and after rain there are a series of causeways/floodways which can become quite deep. Please slow down and cross with care.

For more information, see the maps of the Narrabri district and of Narrabri township. A sketch shows the most important roads more clearly (also available in PDF). Also see the maps of the site and central area

Alternatively you may visit the main ATCA web site.

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