The Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) is a radio astronomy observatory located in a natural bowl of hills at Hartebeesthoek just south of the Magaliesberg mountain range, Gauteng province, South Africa, about 50 km west of Johannesburg. Radio astronomy is a subfield of Astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial and/or celestial events The Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO is a Radio astronomy Observatory located in a natural bowl of hills at Hartebeesthoek just south The Magaliesberg is a Mountain range extending from Pretoria in the north of the Gauteng Province to a point south of Gauteng (xaʊˈtɛŋ Sotho xɑ́útʼèŋ̀ is a province of South Africa. The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa The kilometre ( American spelling: kilometer) symbol km is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to one thousand Johannesburg ( Pronounced /jō-hān'ĭs-bûrg'/ is the largest city in South Africa. It is a National Research Facility run by South Africa's National Research Foundation and is the only major radio astronomy observatory in Africa. The National Research Foundation (NRF of South Africa is a Government Research foundation.
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History
The observatory was originally named Deep Space Station 51 and was built in 1961 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Year 1961 ( MCMLXI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA, ˈnæsə is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program In this role the station assisted in tracking many unmanned United States space missions, including the Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter spacecraft (which landed on the Moon or mapped it from orbit), the Mariner missions (which explored the planets Venus and Mars) and the Pioneer missions (which measured the Sun's winds). The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The VENUS ( V ictoria E xperimental N etwork U nder the S ea project is a cabled sea floor observatory operated by the University The Sun (Sol is the Star at the center of the Solar System.
NASA withdrew from the station in 1975, handing it over to South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), who converted to a radio astronomy observatory. Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR is South Africa 's central and premier scientific research and development organisation In 1988 the observatory became a National Facility operated by the Foundation for Research Development (FRD); in 1999 the FRD was restructured as the National Research Foundation (NRF). Year 1988 ( MCMLXXXVIII) was a Leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar) Year 1999 ( MCMXCIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar)
The Radio Telescope
The observatory is equipped with a single 260 ton radio telescope with a main reflecting surface diameter of 26 metres. Units of mass There are three similar units of Mass called the ton: Long ton (simply ton in countries such as the United A radio telescope is a form of directional Radio antenna used in Radio astronomy and in tracking and collecting data from Satellites Geometry, a diameter of a Circle is any straight Line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose Endpoints are on the The metre or meter is a unit of Length. It is the basic unit of Length in the Metric system and in the International The telescope is equipped with radio receivers operating in the microwave band at wavelengths of 18cm, 13cm, 6cm, 5cm, 4. Radio is the transmission of signals by Modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible Light. Microwaves are electromagnetic waves with Wavelengths ranging from 1 mm to 1 m or frequencies between 0 5cm, 3. 5cm and 2. 5cm.
Research
HartRAO is mainly used for continuum radiometry, spectroscopy, pulsar timing and interferometry but also works together with radio telescopes on other continents as well as the orbiting radio telescope HALCA in order to perform Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). In Optics, radiometry is the field that studies the Measurement of Electromagnetic radiation, including Visible light. Spectroscopy was originally the study of the interaction between Radiation and Matter as a function of Wavelength (λ Pulsars are highly magnetized rotating Neutron stars that emit a beam of Electromagnetic radiation in the form of radio waves Interferometry is the technique of using the pattern of Interference created by the superposition of two or more Waves to diagnose the properties of The HALCA (Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy, also known as MUSES-B before launch and Haruka after launch is a Japanese owned Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI is a type of astronomical interferometry used in Radio astronomy.
MeerKAT, a one-dish prototype, to test the feasibility of the final project, has been constructed at Hartebeesthoek. KAT-7, a seven-dish engineering testbed and science instrument near Carnarvon in the Northern Cape Province, will be operational in 2009. Carnarvon is a small town in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. The Northern Cape is a large sparsely populated province of South Africa, created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up This will be followed by an array of 50 or more dishes on the same site, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), operational by 2012, and linked to a high-speed data transfer network at a remote operations facility. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA is a Radio telescope in development which will have a total collecting area of approximately one Square kilometre. The C-Bass Experiment to be constructed on the same site, is a niche project resulting from a collaboration between HartRAO and the universities of Caltech, Oxford , Manchester and Rhodes . The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech) is a private, Coeducational research university located in Pasadena The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the The University of Manchester is a " red brick " civic University located in Manchester, England. Rhodes University is a university in South Africa named after Cecil Rhodes.
The observatory is an associate member of the European VLBI Network, but also operates with the Australia Telescope Long Baseline Array, the Asia-Pacific Telescope, the United States Very Long Baseline Array and the Global Array. The European VLBI Network (EVN was formed in 1980 by a consortium of five of the major radio astronomy institutes in Europe (the European Consortium for VLBI The Very Long Baseline Array ( VLBA) is a system of ten Radio telescopes controlled remotely from the Array Operations Center in Socorro,
HartRAO also runs a Space Geodesy programme using VLBI, Satellite laser ranging and the Global Positioning System. In satellite laser ranging ( SLR) a global network of observation stations measure the round trip time of flight of ultrashort pulses of Light to Satellites Basic concept of GPS operation A GPS receiver calculates its position by carefully timing the signals sent by the constellation of GPS Satellites high above the Earth
The observatory also provides students and lecturers from South African universities the facilities and opportunities to perform research.