Parkes still dishing it up

It's still one of the things you've got to do if you're passing through Parkes. You've got to visit The Dish. If you time it right, you can even check out the visitor centre and learn lots.

We turned up a bit late in the afternoon. But even so there was a nice little garden to explore, with some interesting astronomically-themed artefacts and learning experiences. There's even a rather brilliant arrangement of two smaller dishes, which illustrate the magnifying powers of parabolas, and enable you to communicate by whisper with somebody stationed 100m away.

Officially the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, The Dish is put to work on lots of cutting edge deep-space projects involving pulsars and gravity waves and the like.

It's best known though for its use during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, when it received the TV broadcast to the world of most of the astronauts' moon walk.

And of course it starred in the 2000 movie, The Dish.

Some towns of NSW's Central West

Wheat silo mural at Weethalle. (Mural courtesy of Melbourne artist Heesco Khosnaran)

West Wyalong. Something rather special about this town's feng shui. I liked it.

Forbes, just after a bit of rain. (Not nearly enough rain, of course.)

More Forbes. These were substantial and prosperous cities once.

Parkes.

The city's namesake, Sir Henry Parkes was one of the founders of Australia. He was a poet and radical self-taught political activist from the Coventry/Birmingham area of England. His poetic skills and masterful speeches made him Premier of NSW five times, and he devoted much of his career to the cause of Australian nationhood.

Orange. Very trendy place to visit. Great wines, great lifestyle, great everything,they say. Pity it's almost run out of water. Good luck, Orange.











Bathurst. Fine old city this one. In fact it was one of Australia's first inland settlements.








These days Bathurst is especially famous for its Mt Panorama motor racing circuit, and its two annual big racing events in February and October.  For most of the year, the circuit is a public road, and you're free to drive around it yourself, so long as you don't exceed the 60km/hr speed limit!