Parkes, NSW

We headed north from Griffith to Parkes, home of the CSIRO Observatory which is one of the world's leading astronomy research facilities. The radio telescope has a 64 metre "dish" and is quite spectacular on approach to the facility as the surrounding landscape is so flat.

The telescope featured in the Australian movie "The Dish" and has also played an important part in several NASA space missions. The Observatory had a very interesting visitor centre which included short films in 3D on the interior of the Parkes telescope and a journey through the Solar System.