From Parkes:

 

During the month the Parkes Rotary Club invited John Sarkissian from the Parkes Radio Telescope to be their Guest Speaker. John provided the members with some very interesting facts and updates on what is happening in the world of astronomy. Such as:

  • He has been working at the telescope for the past 19 yrs. after only coming for a 11 month contract
  • Parkes is one of the worlds greatest research instruments and has been in operation for 54 yrs. but was only designed for a 20 yr. life
  • After a number of upgrades the scope is now 10,000 times more sensitive than when it was originally built
  • Radio telescopes receive radio signals that are feed into computers due to the fact the signals are very very weak. There is a new international project being proposed to create the largest radio telescope which will cover an area of 1 million sq. metres of surface area. And will cost approx.. $3 billion to build. 
  • The 20 countries are involved in the project and it has just recently been announced that the project is to be split between S. Africa and Australia. But this is causing a massive increase in construction costs and now the project is looking shaky with regards to actually being built.
 

Currently the technology for the computer system that is required for this project is not available as the system would require the processing capacity of 100 mil x 100 mil bits/sec. Currently a trial has been built using 36 dishes at 12 metre in diameter called the ASKAP (Aust. square kilometre array Project) and has cost $261 mil to date.

Also visiting Parkes from the Rotary Club of Forbes was Chris Finkel. Chris spoke of his recent climb of Mt Kenya as part of fund raising for Legacy Australia, Olaimugi Masai School in Kenya and Coolaman House AIDS Clinic in Hout Bay in South Africa. Chris advised that just about all the accommodation had thatched roofs. He visited the home of Lord Baden-Powell the founder of the Scouting movement.

He crossed the equator and witnessed for himself water spiralling in different directions in the different hemispheres - "seeing is believing"!! Chris himself reached a level of 4750 metres (being somewhat restricted by the flu), most of the rest of the team reached Camp Lenana at 4985 metres with the summit of Mt Kenya being at 5199 metres. Chris showed a number of images of the slums in Nairobi and a number of Rotary projects that were assisting people living in the slums. 
Rex Veal thanked Chris for his talk and presented him with a cheque for $510 towards their project in Kenya.