Welcome to the Mopra Telescope

 

 
The Mopra Telescope is a 22-m single-dish radio telescope located at the edge of the Warrumbungle Mountains near Coonabarabran, about 450 km north-west of Sydney. It is operated by CSIROs Astronomy and Space Science division, as are the Parkes Telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array near Narrabri in north-west New South Wales. A fourth radio telescope, the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, is also being developed by CSIRO at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the mid-west of Western Australia. Collectively, CSIRO's radio astronomy observatories are known as the Australia Telescope National Facility, with the facility supporting Australia's research in radio astronomy.

Mopra is situated at a latitude and longitude of -31:16:04, 149:05:59 and an elevation of 866 m. The telescope is primarily used for 3-mm spectroscopy and VLBI experiments. The Mopra Control Desk is located in the control building at the Paul Wild Observatory. Observers must carry out their own observing. Remote observing with the Mopra Telescope is possible from anywhere in the world.

From October 2012, Mopra is being operated under a new model, with the provision of funding from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, the University of NSW, and the University of Adelaide allowing for the the continued operation of the telescope, with these groups being provided with guaranteed observing time in return. A description of the new operating model is available.

A severe bushfire on Sunday January 13, 2013 has burned a large region near Coonbarabran including the Mopra and Siding Spring Observatories. Updates on the situation at Mopra -- both bushfire updates and an update on research impacts -- are available from the main ATNF webpage under the "News" heading.

 Mopra Observing Guides

 ATNF Observing Information

 Observing Tools

 Data Reduction & Calibration

  • Map making tutorial. An brief tutorial outlining how to reduce Mopra mapping data using livedata, gridzilla, kvis, miriad and to clean it up and present it pretty with IDL.
  • ASAP - ATNF Spectral Analysis Package An ASAP-GUI interface has been developed by Cormac Purcell and is available for download
  • Livedata/Gridzilla - On-the-fly Mapping Analysis Package
  • Calibration Page

 Mopra Monitoring Information

 Local Mopra Observatory Information

Modified: Phil Edwards (13 Feb 2013)