Warkworth Radio Telescope
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| Location(s) | Auckland Region, New Zealand |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 36°25′59″S 174°39′45″E / 36.43315°S 174.662383°E |
| Diameter | 12.1 m (39 ft 8 in) |
| Secondary diameter | 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) |
.png)  Location of Warkworth Radio Telescope | |
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The Warkworth 12m Radio Telescope is a radio telescope at the Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory, located just south of Warkworth, New Zealand, about 50 km north of the Auckland CBD.[1] It is operated by the Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research of Auckland University of Technology and was constructed in 2008.[2][3][4]
The 12m diameter antenna was designed and constructed by COBHAM Satcom.
The antenna is a fully steerable dual shaped Cassegrain with a main dish diameter of 12.1m and a secondary reflector diameter of 1.8m. The focal Length is 4.538m. The surface precision is 0.35mm (RMS) and the pointing accuracy is 18 inches. It operates in the L-Band, S-Band and X-Band with dual polarisation S and X-band feeds from COBHAM with room temperature receivers. The receiver systems cover 2.2 to 2.4 GHz at S-band and 8.1 to 9.1 GHz at X-band.
It is mounted alt-azimuth and has slewing rates of 5 deg/s in azimuth and 1.25 deg/s in elevation, and acceleration of 1.3 deg/s/s.
Research activity
In 2010 this dish was used for several very-long-baseline interferometry(VLBI) observations[5][6] in conjunction with the Australian Long Baseline Array.[7]
From 2011 it was a part of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry.[8] It is also co-located with a Land Information New Zealand and GNS Science 'PositioNZ' Global Navigation Satellite System[9] station, to assist in maintaining the International Terrestrial Reference Frame.
