Parkes radio telescope dish

We stopped briefly at the visitor's centre in Parkes, then drove on to the radio telescope.

The size of the dish is hard to convey in a photograph, or even grasp on the site: it weighs a thousand tons and is 64 metres across.

There's a "Discovery Centre" for visitors, though it's light on science and emphasizes the role of the dish in the 1969 moon landing. That's also the subject of the film The Dish, which has brought increasing numbers of visitors to the telescope. The Dish Cafe has excellent pies - made there - and cakes.

You won't want to drive from Sydney just to see the Dish unless you're a serious radio astronomy nut, but it's definitely worth a stop if you're passing by - it's only 5 kilometres off the Newell Highway.

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