AuScope VLBI Project and Hobart 26-m Antenna

This is a report on the activities carried out at the three AuScope VLBI observatories and the Hobart 26-m antenna. In 2012 the three AuScope 12-m antennas at Hobart (Hb), Katherine (Ke), and Yarragadee (Yg) completed their first full year of operations as an array. The Hobart 26-m antenna (Ho) continued to make a contribution to IVS, providing overlap with the Hb time series. In total the AuScope antennas and the Hobart 26 m observed for 146 antenna days in 2012. In this report we also briefly highlight our research activities during 2012 and our plans for 2013. 1. VLBI Facilities As part of AuScope (www.auscope.org.au), the University of Tasmania (UTAS) operates the AuScope VLBI Array (Lovell et al., 2013), three radio telescopes on the Australian continent (Figure 1), located near Hobart (Tasmania), Yarragadee (Western Australia), and Katherine (Northern Territory). Newly derived telescope coordinates are presented in Table 1. The AuScope telescopes closely follow the International VLBI Service VLBI2010 specification for the next generation of telescopes for geodesy (Petrachenko et al., 2009) or provide an upgrade path to meet the specification where it is not currently possible to do so.