The Dish at Parkes

Part of yesterday's massive road trip saw me land at the Parkes Radio Telescope (aka big dish in a paddock). It was the focus of the Aussie classic film The Dish, which is historically inaccurate but brilliant regardless. According to the movie, Parkes was vital in recieving the television transmissions of the moon landing. Since the Parkes dish is a radio dish, it recieved the better quality transmission later, but the first pics were actually through a tracking telescope somewhere else in Australia.





I was standing there, looking at the immensity of it, and all I could really think of was a scene from the movie. I stood there thinking Sam Neill played cricket in that thing. Dammit, I want a go!