Introduction
Travel
Accommodation and Meals
Telephones
Safety
Observing
User Questionnaires
Diversions

Introduction

The Narrabri Observatory is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF), which is operated by the CSIRO. The site contains the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), which consists of five moveable antennas on a 3 km east-west railtrack with a 200m north-south spur, and a 6th antenna 3 km further to the west. The site used to be the home of the CSIRO's solar radioheliograph. The central area of the observatory contains a control building with offices for visitors and local staff, laboratories and workshops.

Also on site are the Bureau of Meteorology - Space Weather Services and the University of Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network.

The Observatory is situated 24 km west of the town of Narrabri, which is approximately 540 km north-west of Sydney. Narrabri has a population of about 7,250 and is the centre of a large irrigation and dry-land farming district which produces cotton, oilseed, premium grade wheat, grain sorghum, and raises cattle and sheep. Some of the surrounding tourist attractions are described at the end of this guide.

The telescope is at latitude -30.31498, longitude +149.56394 (east of Greenwich) and is 240m above sea level. The environment is modestly dry. Temperatures are typically above 30^oC on summer afternoons (e.g. January,February), and are close to 0^oC on winter mornings (e.g. June, July).

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How to get to the Narrabri Observatory

Narrabri is at the intersection of the Newell and Kamilaroi Highways making driving from eastern seaboard cities straight forward. Narrabri can be reached by rail and air from Sydney and air from Brisbane.

Always let the Observatory personnel know your travel plans so they know when you will be arriving.

Please also let the staff know if your travel plans change.

Details

• Going by air:
  LINK airways offers several flights per week from Brisbane to Narrabri. Qantas flights from Sydney to Moree or Tamworth may also be options. Car hire from any of these airports is available.

• Going by rail:
  There is a daily train service between Sydney and Narrabri. The train departs Sydney in the morning and arrives in Narrabri late afternoon. The return journey departs Narrabri in the morning and arrives in Sydney late afternoon.
  See the CountryLink Web pages for current information and timetables on rail travel between Sydney and Narrabri. Reservations are required, and the train is often full.

• Going by car:
  The 545 km drive from Sydney takes approximately 7.5 hours. You have a choice of two routes: North via the Pacific Motorway/Hunter Expressway (Hunter Valley wine country), or west over the Blue Mountains (very scenic). You can obtain an idea of these routes by consulting OpenStreetMap or Google Maps

• Driving from Narrabri township to Narrabri Observatory:
  Car rentals are available in Narrabri from Avis or SixT. See OpenStreetMap or Google Maps on getting to the Observatory.

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Accommodation & meals

Accommodation and meals are available in Narrabri town for observers wishing to visit the site. Plenty of accommodation options are available here. Lunches need to be brought to site.

To arrange a booking to visit the site, (or any reservation of ATNF accommodation, travel or computing needs) please fill in the ATNF Reservation Form

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Telephones

Mobile phones are not to be used on site (unless in flight mode with WiFi & Bluetooth disabled). Please speak to admin staff if you need to make outside calls or for appropriate phone numbers if you wish to be contacted by external people while visiting.

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Personal safety

The observatory is a safe place. However we ask that you familiarise yourself with information aimed at further safeguarding your well-being. Please complete the general safety information for visitors induction.

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Observing with the ATCA

Please see the information for observers.

Observing from physically at the observatory is only possible during business hours.

An on-call person is rostered at all times. Please familiarise yourself with who to contact should you require after hours support whilst on site.

To report problems, please send an email to atca.support@csiro.au For more information see user feedback information

A computer account is needed to use the observatory computers. Please obtain this before arriving on site. Please place your temporary files in an appropriately identified sub-directory or folder. Remember to remove your files and directories before leaving.

Backing up your copy of the observing data and any data processing is your own responsibility (contact your Observing Expert if you are unsure about how to proceed with this) All data is automatically archived, and deleting observing files must only be done by, or with the authority of, the Narrabri operations staff.

A collection of web pages is devoted to describing the computing facilities.

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User questionnaires

To provide feedback on the operation of the observatory, please complete an observer's questionnaire at the end of your observing run. It is available on-line.

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Diversions

The observatory has ping-pong and pool tables, as well as bicycles that can be used for cycling around the observatory grounds. However please do not cycle onto the neighbours property. The site includes an unstaffed Visitors Centre.

For non-astronomical diversions in the region, please see our general pages for the public.

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This site is also known as the Paul Wild Observatory or (occasionally) Culgoora.

Please address all communication to:

CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
1828 Yarrie Lake Rd
Narrabri NSW 2390
Australia

Telephone: (02) 6790 4000 (International +61 2 6790 4000)

E-mail: narrabri@csiro.au

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