* Astronomy

Title: The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Project
Authors: R. N. Manchester (1), G. Hobbs (1), M. Bailes (2), W. A. Coles (3), W. van Straten (2), M. J. Keith (1), R. M. Shannon (1), N. D. R. Bhat (2 and 4), A. Brown (1), S. G. Burke-Spolaor (5 and 1), D. J. Champion (6 and 1), A. Chaudhary (1), R. T. Edwards (7), G. Hampson (1), A. W. Hotan (1 and 2), A. Jameson (2), F. A. Jenet (8), M. J. Kesteven (1), J. Khoo (1), J. Kocz (2 and 9), K. Maciesiak (10), S. Oslowski (2 and 1), V. Ravi (11 and 1), J. R. Reynolds (1), J. M. Sarkissian (1), J. P. W. Verbiest (6 and 2), Z. L. Wen (12), W. E. Wilson (1), D. Yardley (13 and 1), W. M. Yan (14), X. P. You (15) ((1) CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Epping NSW, Australia, (2) Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn Vic, Australia, (3) University of California at San Diego, San Diego CA, USA, (4) Curtin University, Bentley WA, Australia, (5) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA, USA, (6) Max Planck Institut fur Radio Astronomie, Bonn, Germany, (7) 10 James Street, Whittlesea Vic, Australia, (8) University of Texas at Brownsville, Brownsville TX, USA, (9) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge MA, USA, (10) University of Zielona Gora, Zielona Gora, Poland, (11) University of Melbourne, Vic, Australia, (12) National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Beijing, China, (13) University of Sydney, NSW, Australia, (14) Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, CAS, Urumqi, China, (15) Southwest University, Chongqing, China)

A "pulsar timing array" (PTA), in which observations of a large sample of pulsars spread across the celestial sphere are combined, allows investigation of "global" phenomena such as a background of gravitational waves or instabilities in atomic timescales that produce correlated timing residuals in the pulsars of the array. The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) is an implementation of the PTA concept based on observations with the Parkes 64-m radio telescope. A sample of 20 millisecond pulsars is being observed at three radio-frequency bands, 50cm (~700 MHz), 20cm (~1400 MHz) and 10cm (~3100 MHz), with observations at intervals of 2 - 3 weeks. Regular observations commenced in early 2005. This paper describes the systems used for the PPTA observations and data processing, including calibration and timing analysis. The strategy behind the choice of pulsars, observing parameters and analysis methods is discussed. Results are presented for PPTA data in the three bands taken between 2005 March and 2011 March. For ten of the 20 pulsars, rms timing residuals are less than 1 microsec for the best band after fitting for pulse frequency and its first time derivative. Significant "red" timing noise is detected in about half of the sample. We discuss the implications of these results on future projects including the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) and a PTA based on the Square Kilometre Array. We also present an "extended PPTA" data set that combines PPTA data with earlier Parkes timing data for these pulsars.

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Title: The First Observations with the GRT at Parkes
Authors: R. M. Price

In this contribution Marcus Price gives a first hand account of some of the very first scientific observations undertaken with the "Giant Radio Telescope" at Parkes. It was clearly a very exciting time of discovery, enabled by superb engineering.

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Title: Dishing up the Data: A Decade of Space Missions
Authors: John Sarkissian

The past decade has seen Parkes once again involved in a wide range of space tracking activities that have added to its illustrious legacy. This contribution is a personal recollection of those tracking efforts - both real and celluloid. We begin in a light-hearted vein with some behind-the-scenes views of the popular film, "The DISH", and then turn to more serious contributions; discussing the vital role of the telescope in alleviating the great "traffic jam" at Mars in 2003/04 and salvaging the Doppler Wind Experiment as the Huygens probe descended though the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in mid-decade. We cap off the decade with a discussion of the search for the missing Apollo 11 slow-scan TV tapes.

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Title: Pulsars at Parkes
Authors: R. N. Manchester

The first pulsar observations were made at Parkes on March 8, 1968, just 13 days after the publication of the discovery paper by Hewish and Bell. Since then, Parkes has become the world's most successful pulsar search machine, discovering nearly two thirds of the known pulsars, among them many highly significant objects. It has also led the world in pulsar polarisation and timing studies. In this talk I will review the highlights of pulsar work at Parkes from those 1968 observations to about 2006 when the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey was essentially completed and the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project was established.

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