Warkworth Radio Telescope


The Warkworth 12m Radio Telescope at the Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory is operated by the Institute of Radio Astronomy and Space Research of Auckland University of Technology. It was constructed in 2008 and is located just south of Warkworth off SH1 about 50 km north of Auckland, New Zealand.

Technical information

The 12m diameter antenna was designed and constructed by COBHAM Satcom, Patriot Products division.
The antenna is a fully steerable dual shaped Cassegrain
with a main dish Diameter of 12.1 m
and a secondary Reflector diameter of 1.8m.
The focal Length is 4.538 m.
The surface precision is 0.35 mm and the
pointing accuracy is 18 inches.
It operates in the L-Band, S-Band and X-Band with
dual polarization 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 observations as part of the Australian Long Baseline Array.
It will also from 2011 be part of the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry. As such, it is also co-located with a LINZ/GeoNet 'PositioNZ' GNSS station to help future inclusion in the definition of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame.