Radio source surveys and cosmology From Badgery’s Creek and Fleurs to Molonglo Gordon Robertson

Radio source surveys and cosmology

From Badgery’s Creek and Fleurs to Molonglo

Gordon Robertson

Cosmological heavyweights – 1950s and 1960s

Fred Hoyle

Bernie Mills

Martin Ryle

101 MHz interferometer at Badgery’s Creek, 1950-1952

W.T. Sullivan (1984) p 148,151

85.5 MHz ‘Cross’ at Fleurs, 1954. Length 450 m

W.T. Sullivan (1984) p 154

W.T. Sullivan (1984) p 154

The crew at Fleurs, c. 1956. L to R: K. Hawkins, C.A. Shain, O.B. Slee, B.Y. Mills, K.V. Sheridan, A.G. Little and H. Rishbeth.

W.T. Sullivan (1984) p 146

Flo (the lorry) at Fleurs, 1956. Bruce Slee, Alec Little and Kevin Sheridan.

Aust. J. Phys. 10, 162, 1957.

Aust. J. Phys. 10, 168, 1957.

Proc. IRE Aust. 24, 156, 1963

Collaboration with the School of Electrical Engineering

The Molonglo 408 MHz 1-mile Cross (Mills Cross)

M.I. Large, B.Y. Mills, A.G. Little, D.F. Crawford, and J.M. Sutton MNRAS 194, 693, 1981

and

M.I. Large, L.E. Cram and A.M. Burgess Observatory 111, 72, 1991

Grad student in the driver’s seat, c. 1973

The KDF9 computer

Fax plot of single scan data from 11 minutes observation (dec zone -62)

KDF9 plotter output for same area, averaged data (Neff=12)

Small-area deep surveys with Molonglo Cross

Grad student in the paperless office, c. 1975

Source counts from Molonglo, epoch 1976

Source evolution models to fit counts, 1976

SUMSS – source counts epoch 2003 (843 MHz)