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Discipine of Physics
Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology

Mount Pleasant Observatory

The 26m Antenna
The 26 m telescope is at latitude 42 48' 18'' S, longitude 147 26' 21'' (east of Greenwich) and is 43 m above sea level. The telescope is equipped with a variety of receivers which operate between 660 MHz and 22 GHz. The large number of available receivers makes the telescope suitable for a variety of research projects within the University and its location makes it a vital element in the Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA) VLBI network.

Live pages for Hobart 26m antenna.		Mount Pleasant

The 14m Antenna
The 14m telescope is a fully steerable antenna with an Azimuth/Elevation mount. This telescope was built by the then Physics Department in 1981 exclusively for timing of the Vela Pulsar (PSR0833-45). It has functioned almost exclusively in this capacity ever since and we have daily timing information for Vela now spanning over 20 years!

Live pages for Hobart 14m antenna.

External Use
The observatory is open to external users and for commercial tracking purposes. For information on aquiring observatory time, please contact the Director, Professor John M. Dickey.

Satellite Tracking with Mount Pleasant
Prior to its relocation to Tasmania in 1985 the Mt Pleasant 26m antenna was situated at Orroral Valley, near Canberra.  Its primary function was in satellite tracking, in particular of LEO (low Earth orbit) satellites.  Since its relocation to Mt Pleasant it has been mainly involved in radio astronomy observations, however, the XY antenna mount and fast drives mean that it retains its satellite tracking capabilities.

The antenna has undertaken a variety of commercial projects for international aerospace companies.  These include regular tracking and data collection from the IMP 8 satellite and tracking satellite launch and deployment from both Cape Canaveral and Kazachstan.  People interested in contracting commercial tracking projects should contact the Director,  Professor John M Dickey.

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Created: September 2009 by Tammy Riley
Last modified: September 2009
© Copyright School of Mathematics & Physics, University of Tasmania Australia, 2009