Australasia’s first ever virtual e-telescope will come to life today, when six Australian and New Zealand radio telescopes link together in real time.

First ever Trans-Tasman Virtual e-Telescope

Researchers from AUT University’s Institute for Radio Astronomy and Space Research (IRASR), Australia’s CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation), the University of Tasmania and Curtin University will use a technique known as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (eVLBI) to collect huge amounts of data simultaneously from five radio telescopes observing a very remote quasar.

All the radio telescopes will be operated remotely from AUT’s Warkworth Observatory. Data will be streamed from the telescopes to the Narrabri, NSW processing centre via KAREN and its Australian counterpart AARNet, processed in real time, and the results will be immediately seen on a big screen in Warkworth.

“This demonstration is an important step in the Australasian SKA (Square Kilometre Array) bid, which will be based on exactly the same eVLBI technique,” says Gulyaev.  “We are excited to try out this technology and show what is possible when Australia and New Zealand radio astronomers join forces.”

KAREN in action

In the spirit of the draft KAREN Resource Allocation policy, Dr. Sergei Gulyaev of AUT has scheduled this experiment off peak hours of network usage. REANNZ encourages all members of the community to comment on and be familiar with community policies found on the KAREN wiki.

The image below from the KAREN Weathermap shows pre-experiment testing over KAREN taking place earlier today. You can also see the KAREN Weathermap in real time.