DRAO – White Lake Observatory – north of Oliver

Gary Hovey, manager for the antennae project, says “We are just about to re-measure it, with it facing up, and finish off the motor control system on the tower,” he said. “By the end of April we will get a crane out and lift the dish on to the mount.”

The $300,000 carbon fibre dish was dented while being transported from Okanagan Falls to the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory last October with many repairs made over the winter.

With better weather ahead the next phase starts and by May researchers hope to test it on the sky.

The dish is a candidate antennae for the Square Kilometre Array, a project to build a radio telescope that is 100 times more sensitive than anything that exists

According to Hovey, the testing in the sky will entail looking at the stars to see how the dish performs.

“They are interested in knowing if this novel design made of carbon fibre meets the high performance goals that they require,” said Hovey. “It can be mass produced at a relatively low cost.”

“Everyone thought it was destroyed, but we were pretty sure it could be popped out,” he said. “Everyone was impressed we recovered from this so quickly, even the competition.”

Files from Castanet