Warkworth Radio Telescope

Not to be confused with Warkworth 30m Radio Telescope.

The Warkworth 12m Radio Telescope is a radio telescope at the Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory, located just south of Warkworth, New Zealand, about 50 km north of the Auckland CBD.^[1] It is operated by the Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research of Auckland University of Technology and was constructed in 2008.^[2][3][4]

Warkworth 12m Radio Telescope

Location(s)	Auckland Region, New Zealand
Coordinates	36°25′59″S 174°39′45″E
Diameter	12.1 m (39 ft 8 in)
Secondary diameter	1.8 m (5 ft 11 in)
Location of Warkworth Radio Telescope
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Technical information

The 12m diameter antenna was designed and constructed by COBHAM Satcom.

The antenna is a fully steerable dual shaped Cassegrain with a main dish diameter of 12.1m and a secondary reflector diameter of 1.8m. The focal Length is 4.538m. The surface precision is 0.35mm (RMS) and the pointing accuracy is 18 inches. It operates in the L-Band, S-Band and X-Band with dual polarisation S and X-band feeds from COBHAM with room temperature receivers. The receiver systems cover 2.2 to 2.4 GHz at S-band and 8.1 to 9.1 GHz at X-band.

It is mounted alt-azimuth and has slewing rates of 5 deg/s in azimuth and 1.25 deg/s in elevation, and acceleration of 1.3 deg/s/s.

Research activity

In 2010 this dish was used for several very-long-baseline interferometry(VLBI) observations^[5][6] in conjunction with the Australian Long Baseline Array.^[7]

From 2011 it was a part of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry.^[8] It is also co-located with a Land Information New Zealand and GNS Science 'PositioNZ' Global Navigation Satellite System^[9] station, to assist in maintaining the International Terrestrial Reference Frame.

See also

• Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory
• Warkworth 30m Radio Telescope
• Radio astronomy
• Radio telescope
• List of radio telescopes