Welcome to The S.E.T.I Research & Community Development Institute Limited web Site. It is our intention to keep you informed on the happenings and ongoing work of the Amateur SETI movement in Australia. We are a non-government, non-profit organisation that has as it's members, some of the brightest minds in the world of science. We exist due to the generous assistance of our sponsors and friends. Some of these organizations and individuals are listed below and we are grateful for their contributions to our cause.

                                          Our Mission 

SETI research group came into existence in 1998 when attending the SETI In the 21st Century conference at the University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown NSW. We were a group of Seti League members attending the conference and in between the various papers being presented, the delegates had the opportunity to mix and enjoy some informal discussions. After returning to Brisbane (QLD Australia) an informal meeting with some of our SetiLeague colleagues occurred and we decided that our group should get fully involved with designing and constructing our own SETI Observatory. After all, the Southern Hemisphere offered the best astronomical viewing opportunities in the world. The task was enormous. We needed land, electrical power, equipment, willing labour, money !!!!! Money???? How and who would be so generous to help us out? Well, as it turned out, many individuals and companies came forward to assist us with all aspects of the design, and construction of a facility that would rival anything done elsewhere in the world. SO, OUR MISSION was to do all of the above on a shoe string budget. Yeah Alright, pull the other leg!!! Seriously, we have done it. Our sponsors and willing labour force have done the seemingly impossible. We now have a block of land (2acres) in Southern Queensland with a 13KW Solar Power Station, 2 large 40 Ft dishes, a 14inch Celestron C-14 Optical Telescope facility with C.C.D. camera, accommodation for caretaker and visitors, equipment buildings and most other things to allow us to start doing what we set out to do, provide a first class Astronomical facility to assist the rural educational community and to provide access to both Radio and Optical telescope facilities that are accessible to the future scientists of Australia. This website aims to keep you informed as to our progress. We hope that you enjoy your visit with us. We will endeavour to make your visits here enjoyable. Many sections of the website get updated. Just cruise around regularly and keep up-to-date with what we are up to. Oh, and please sign our guestbook we value your comments.

Special Web Sites and Features From Our Activities in Boonah

                  News News SITE WEBCAMS are Here Now !!

Broadband ADSL is now installed and working at the Observatory site so we have setup three webcams for you to look at. Our local area network is finished being configured and all is looking good. The new cameras will provide new pictures every 60 seconds of the site in Boonah. Stay tuned. Not only will this monumental event provide cute pix of our activities but it will allow us to easily control the site remotely. A huge development for us. Our fourth and final webcam will be active at night and will be pointed at the sky. This will allow our northern hemisphere visitors to get a look at the southern hemisphere sky almost in real time.

    WEBCAM 1                        WEBCAM 2                     WEBCAM 3

Click any of the above three pictures to get a larger view of the site webcam images at the observatory. The pictures are updated every 60 seconds so re-load often to see interesting things like Kangaroos, kookaburra's and two cute hare's and other local wildlife from around the area. At weekends especially Saturday  you will see us working away at our current project. ENJOY.

                          The First Dish is now completed

Well, after several years of planning and making parts that were missing, the first of our 40 footers is ready for some Drift Scan Radio Astronomy. Below is an image of the finished dish sitting on a concrete slab. It has taken us 25 man days to prepare and install the new surface plates. Each plate is bolted on to the main arms and other support structure we had to fabricate. Quite a sight it is. The work load was very high and much was done standing on top of ladders

The outer section (segment 9) is made from Aluminum fly screen mesh and was very awkward to handle. We had to make a special support to mount it on so it would not flap around in the breeze. The rest of the dish is a mixture of the old screens that came with the dish and many new one's that we fabricated on site. The original screens were punched with holes about 15mm in diameter. You can see them as they look different in the images. Our trusty team of volunteers need a mention and some thanks for their efforts. Mike Boggan and Deb Skilton have worked hard over the past 6 months to get this structure finished. Deb at left was a keen assistant when Mike was not able to be on site. Seen at left is Deb finding some nuts and washers that fell through the holes in the dish. Yep I dropped them !! Noel Welstead can be seen drilling the holes to attach the mesh to the outer perimeter of the structure. This was a frustrating job that saw many pin pricks from the edge of the mesh. There was many profanities uttered during this phase. The feed horn and electronics were completed about 18 months ago and the support structure installed around that time. We needed to get this hauled up using a crane at the same time we moved the dishes around.

The delicate nature of the outer skin including the mesh supports had to be made on site. This was an arduous task as each piece had to be measured and cut to size for each segment. Much of the work included drilling and tapping the holes to accommodate the stainless bolts and washers. At right you can see one of the screens that are punched out with holes. At left you can see a panel with the mesh attached.

The first two layers (plates the same shape) were installed some time ago to trial how things would go together. There were some initial problems with the Stainless nuts and bolts seizing and locking prematurely. We had to twist and snap them to get them off again. This caused us to re-think what we were doing. In the end we decided that the simplest remedy was to lubricate the bolts. This worked and made things much easier for us. After installing the first 3 layers Mike Boggan got inside and taped the joins with Aluminum tape. This gave us a near mirror finish and looks quite startling to look at. As well as looking good the tape reduced the effects of a not perfect surface which is quite important if we want to move our search higher up the band, maybe to 2 x 21cm or 2840mhz. Above right is Noel standing in the dish to show a  relative size comparison. The surface is quite smooth and one needs to take care when walking up the side. You can see the entry hatch we made to allow access to the inside for cleaning and repairs if necessary.

Because of the highly reflective surface of the mill finish Aluminum we decided that we should paint the surface to ensure a more stable temperature variation to reduce excessive expansion and contraction of the plates. We had noticed that during the day when it was hot, the surface had expanded quite a bit. And when the dish was in shadow late afternoon the surface had contracted noticeably. Noel's relatives Colin & Lynnette Brooks cam on site for a weekend of painting. Noel did the cutting in while Colin did the rolling. Quite a nice finish now and the surface temperature variations are much less than before. We decided that it was time to test the LNA's to see if they were still working ok after nearly a year in the elements. Mike and Noel hooked up an ICOM r8500 receiver to check out the systems. Looks like one channel is down so soon we must climb to the feed point and have a look. Well finally the dish is painted and looking great. Thanks Col and Lynnette for the help and a great weekend on site.

Next we need to start prepping Dish2 cause "while your Hot your Hot" and we need to make use of the cooler winter days to work in such a reflective environment, not to mention the heat (who mentioned the heat!) so we did some cleaning up around dish2 and got it nice and level for the bolt tightening event next weekend. In the background you can see dish1 gleaming in the sunshine. Oh what a feeling !

Finally a picture of our trusty workers. From left to right is Cathy Boggan, Bobbie Pahl, Bob Pahl, Debbie Skilton and Mike Boggan (holding drink). The assistance of volunteers is a great way to get things done and we are very grateful for any assistance given.

                                  Life Among the Stars

The Bio-Astronomy 2002 conference was held in Australia at Hamilton Island 8 ~ 12 July. Some of our members attended and some preliminary snapshots and captions can be found here. The proceedings can be purchased from this link HERE.

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                                         **NEW**   

Could our UNIVERSE be one giant COMPUTER SIMULATION?

Neil Boucher investigates this possibility in his essay titled SIMULATION OF THE UNIVERSE. It asks fundamental questions about our own reality, if there really is one !!!!!

See what NASA'S Hubble sees, with the click of a mouse

Each day, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope collects enough information and images to fill five encyclopaedia's. Now, anyone with access to a computer and the World Wide Web can see the most exciting pictures captured by the world's first space-based optical telescope.

A new web site, "Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe," highlights the unique contributions to astronomy by this tireless observatory. The exhibition was developed by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Baltimore, MD, in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution

To experience the new "Hubble Space Telescope: New Views of the Universe," visit: http://hstexhibit.stsci.edu

The Hubble's official online science web site is located at: http://hubble.stsci.edu

Ground Breaking News

Astrobiology Magazine This site is dedicated to the subject of Astrobiology so you can keep up to date with all the current news on this subject here.

Planet Quest The fifth-brightest star in the night sky may be home to planetary system similar to ours, according to new research by astronomers at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh. Computer modeling techniques have shown that the structure of a faint dust disk around Vega can be best explained by a Neptune-like planet orbiting at a similar distance to Neptune in our own solar system and having similar mass.

Panspermia.org Life on Europa or other moons? Scientists say "probably"?

Eso.org The European Southern Observatory is an intergovernmental, European organisation for astronomical research. It has eight member countries. E.S.O. operates astronomical observatories in Chile and has its headquarters in Garching, near Munich, Germany.

Contact Information

• Information and general enquiries info@seti.org.au
• Technical Information tech@seti.org.au
• Web Master nwelstead@seti.org.au
• Or Snail Mail

P.O. Box 1242 Kenmore
Mail Delivery Centre
Brisbane Queensland, Australia 4069

Awards

We are pleased to announce this site was chosen, as winner of the SETI SuperStar Award for the month of May 2000.

Other Awards
	This Site has been awarded the Golden Web Award for excellence in design by the International Association of Web Masters & Designers in 2001/02 & 2003/04.