The Dish

This magnificent structure is the Parkes Observatory, situated about 20kms north of Parkes in Central NSW in Australia. It is affectionately known as ‘The Dish’. it was the star of a very successful movie of the same name, made in 2000.

The diameter of ‘The Dish’ is 64 metres and its weight above the control tower is 1,000 tonnes.

‘The Dish’ was built on a sheep farm in 1961 and was one of the first large single-dish radio telescopes in the world. It was part of a network of stations around the world during the Apollo 11 moon landing. The moon landing was watched by about 530 million people across the world. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the moon on 21 July 1969 (AEST). Soon after their first steps, NASA switched to the Parkes Observatory signal. It was the source of most of the two and a half hours of moonwalk footage.

It operates 24 hours a day and is used by scientists all over the world. It has been constantly upgraded and is said to be now 10,000 times more efficient and effective than it was in 1969.