Australia Telescope Compact Array

We had a mindblowing visit to the ATCA near Narrabri today. Dad had been in contact with them by email to find out that they were reconfiguriing the dishes today at 8am. So we were there ready and waiting to find the 5 dishes all together on the western end of the track.
There are 6 dishes in total at this facility, one of which is a fixed dish 3km west of the others. The other 5 are moved along the track at the whim of the scientists gathering information from outer space. Apparently the 5 dishes are moved every few weeks. This system that combines signals from different dishes is called an "interferometer".
Each dish is 22m across and weighs 270 tonnes, so the job of moving them is a little more complicated that it may seem. As they move at 4km/hr, it is a slow process too.They are moved on a wide rail track and once in position are plugged into stations along the track that transfer the information back to the control building.
Four hours later they had been repositioned along the 3km track that runs East to West with 2 of them on the 214m track that runs North to South.
The rail track allows the dishes to be configured in different ways (Put into different positions) to allow scientists to gather specific information.
It was a gorgeous day, out in the winter sun and so very interesting too!