Founded in 1960, this research facility is Canada's largest radio astronomy observatory. Built at a radio quiet site in the Okanagan Valley in south central British Columbia, it presently employs three different instruments - a 26-metre fully steerable dish, a seven-antenna
aperture synthesis array and a solar radio flux monitor. The facility is operated by the National Research Council of Canada’s Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics.
A Crown Owned property under the management of the
National Research Council of Canada, the site was entered in Canada's
Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory prior to 2010. A site assessment revealed the site to contain Metal, metalloid, and organometallic contaminants in the soil and PCBs (Polychlorinated Biphenyl) and PCDD/Fs (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin/dibenzofuran) in another, unspecified, medium. Remediation work was carried out in 2011, which entailed the removal and disposal of approximately 250 cubic metres of soil, after which it was decreed that no further action was required and the site's file was closed.
Total cost of the project was
$188,787.68 - $27,463.05 for the assessment and $161,324.63 for remedial work.
Action Plan
No further action required. Following environmental site investigations, remediation work was carried out in winter of 2011. As reported in the 2016 Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment and confirmatory sampling within the 2016 remediation report for the former landfill, remediation objectives were achieved. No further action was recommended and as such the monitoring wells were decommissioned in 2017-18 and the site file closed. The site will continue to be used for research.
From The Site's Webpage
The first telescope at the facility was the 26-metre dish, which was put into operation June 21, 1960. Its primary purpose was the study of hydrogen in the universe.
On April 17, 1967, the 25.6-metre radio telescope at Penticton was used in conjunction with the 46-metre telescope at the Algonquin Radio Observatory to simulate the resolution of a giant radio telescope measuring 3,074 kilometres (the physical distance between the two instruments). It was the first successful long distance interferometry experiment ever conducted.
From Astro Canada
The next was a Very Low Frequency (VLF) array, which consisted of 1,700 cedar posts extending for 1.3 kilometres in the shape of a “T” covering a surface area of 65,000 square metres, supporting a network of several thousand metres of metallic wires forming the antenna of the radio telescope. It was used primarily between 1965 and 1969 during a period of low sunspot activity, when VLF waves from space can pass through the atmosphere.
Near the end of the 1960s a
synthesis array telescope was begun, consisting of a pair of 8.5 metre parabolic antennas which simulated a larger radio telescope with a 600-metre diameter. Today the array has been enlarged to seven parabolic antennas arrayed along a 600 metre baseline track.
Newly constructed is a new Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, which is described in brief below.
Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME): Canada's largest radio telescope, CHIME is a collaboration among the University of British Columbia, McGill University and the University of Toronto. Collecting radio emissions from the Universe between 400 and 800 MHz, it is designed to survey atomic hydrogen from the largest volume of the Universe to date. This novel telescope, with no moving parts, is composed of four 100-metre by 20-metre cylinders with an array of 128 radio receivers along each focus, leading to 2048 inputs into the high-power digital data processor system. CHIME maps the whole sky visible overhead every day.
From the DRAO
The observatory is a great place for the scientifically inclined to visit. One can get up close and personal with the telescopes as well as spending some time in the informative visitor centre. To reach the observatory, turn off Highway 97 at the sign at White Lake Road, 650 metres south of the Highway 3A intersection south of Kaleden. The observatory is about 8 kilometres down White Lake Road.