Location: Mamre Road, Kemps Creek, Penrith, NSW
Country: Darug and Gundungarra
LGA: Penrith City Council
Region: Greater Western Sydney
Website:
Map: Below
The Chris Cross at Fleurs, May 13, 2024, CSIRO
From 1954 to 1963, CSIRO’s Fleurs field station, located 40 km west of central Sydney, was one of the world’s leading radio astronomy observatories. Fleurs was home to three innovative radio telescopes: the Mills Cross, Shain Cross and the Chris Cross, all of which played important roles in advancing radio astronomy from the 1950s through to the 1980s, when the site was closed. The Chris Cross, named after its designer, “Chris” Christiansen, was completed in 1957 and comprised 378-m north-south and east-west arms, each containing 32 parabolic dishes 5.8 m in diameter. The Chris Cross operated at 1420 MHz, with a 1.5 arc-minute fan beam, and was initially used to generate two-dimensional high-resolution radio images of the Sun … more >>
Penrith: Our Place in History, Summer 2021: The Fleurs Telescope Site >>
CSIRO: Renamed Fleurs dish now at Parkes Observatory
CSIRO operated the Fleurs field station from 1954 to 1963. The Chris Cross , with two arms of 32 parabolic 5.8-m diameter dishes, was complemented with the addition of 18-m Kennedy antenna at the eastern end of the E-W arm. These formed the Fleurs Compound Interferometer that operated at 1420 MHz with an instantaneous 1 degree x 1.5 arc-minute fan beam., The image above shows the dish of the antenna being lowered into position in late 1960. When Fleurs was tranferred to the University of Sydney in 1963, the Kennedy antenna was moved to Parkes. Its innovative use in the variable baseline interferometer is described briefly in a previous ADAP …. The Kennedy antenna was given the Wiradjuri name Giyalung Guluman , meaning ‘Smart Dish’, in 2020. Credit: Kennedy antenna “dish lift” at Fleurs, Australia Telescoe National Facility Daily Pictures, May 21, 2024.
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Post published 11 January 2025. Last updated 23 April, 2025.
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