36-Dish Australian Telescope Array Opens for Business
The Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is now standing tall in the outback of Western Australia, and will officially be turned on and open for business on Friday, October 5, 2012 . This large array is made up of 36 identical antennas, each 12 meters in diameter, spread out over 4,000 square meters but working together as a single instrument. ASKAP is designed to survey the whole sky very quickly, and astronomers expect to do studies of the sky that could never have been done before.
Just think. Thirty-six dish based cricket matches going on at once (at 40 secs):
The gentlemen at Parkes never actually used the dish for cricket, since despite its size it is actually a precision instrument.