We describe an ultra-wide-bandwidth, low-frequency receiver recently installed on the Parkes radio telescope. The receiver system provides continuous frequency coverage from 704 to 4032 MHz. For much of the band ( ${\sim}60\%$ ), the system temperature is approximately 22 K and the receiver system remains in a linear regime even in the presence of strong mobile phone transmissions. We discuss the scientific and technical aspects of the new receiver, including its astronomical objectives, as well as the feed, receiver, digitiser, and signal processor design. We describe the pipeline routines that form the archive-ready data products and how those data files can be accessed from the archives. The system performance is quantified, including the system noise and linearity, beam shape, antenna efficiency, polarisation calibration, and timing stability.

Multi-decade observing campaigns of the globular clusters 47 Tucanae and M15 have led to an outstanding number of discoveries. Here, we report on the latest results of the long-term observations of the pulsars in these two clusters. For most of the pulsars in 47 Tucanae we have measured, among other things, their higher-order spin period derivatives, which have in turn provided stringent constraints on the physical parameters of the cluster, such as its distance and gravitational potential. For M15, we have studied the relativistic spin precession effect in PSR B2127+11C. We have used full-Stokes observations to model the precession effect, and to constrain the system geometry. We find that the visible beam of the pulsar is swiftly moving away from our line of sight and may very soon become undetectable. On the other hand, we expect to see the opposite emission beam sometime between 2041 and 2053.

PSR B1828–11 is a young pulsar once thought to be undergoing free precession and recently found instead to be switching magnetospheric states in tandem with spin-down changes. Here we show the two extreme states of the mode-changing found for this pulsar and comment briefly on its interpretation.

The first known pulsar glitch was discovered in the Vela pulsar at both Parkes and Goldstone in March 1969. Since then the number of known glitches has grown enormously, with more than 520 glitches now known in more than 180 pulsars. Details of glitch parameters and post-glitch recoveries are described and some implications for the physics of neutron stars are discussed.

The prompt radio emission associated with SN 1987A appeared and disappeared within the space of a few days. The next radio emission is expected as the high velocity ejecta expand into the circumstellar material. The evidence from the timing of the initial UV-flash is that this stage may occur shortly. We have therefore begun to monitor the field around SNR 1987A at high sensitivity with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. At λ6cm, an upper limit to the radio emission of 180μJy has been obtained. Continued observations are planned.

Pulsars are unique astronomical objects in that their emission is in the form of a periodic pulse train. For most pulsars the pulse duty cycle is small, only a few per cent of the period. The shapes and intensities of individual pulses are in general quite variable. This is illustrated in Figure 1 which shows a series of individual pulses from PSR 1133 + 16. Despite this variation in shape of individual pulses, it is found that the mean or integrated pulse profile obtained by adding many pulses synchronously with the period is in most cases stable in shape.

Observations of galactic HII regions in the longitude range 280° to 300° have recently been made at the OH-line frequencies 1612.231, 1665.402 and 1667.358 MHz using the Parkes radio telescope. Strong emission was observed at 1612 and 1665 MHz from a source near the regions of Hα emission RCW 48 and RCW 49 (Rodgers, Campbell and Whiteoak).

Over 600 pulsars are now known, almost all of which lie in our Galaxy. Most pulsars have periods between 0 · 1 and a few seconds, but a very important sub-class, the ‘millisecond’ pulsars, have much shorter periods. Millisecond pulsars are often in a binary orbit with another star, suggesting that their short periods are a result of accreting mass from the companion star. They are also extraordinarily good clocks, with a stability comparable to that of the best atomic clocks. This combination of extreme period stability and binary motion has led to some very important results, including the first observational evidence for gravitational radiation and the first evidence for extra-solar planetary systems. It is probable that pulsars will be used to define the long-term standard of terrestrial time. A search of the southern sky using the Parkes radio telescope has found several millisecond pulsars which will make an important contribution to these precision-timing programs.

Molonglo Observatory has played an important role in pulsar astronomy from shortly after the initial discovery announcement in 1968 to the present. Its major contribution has been in the area of searches for new pulsars – for most of the 17-year period more than half of the known pulsars were Molonglo discoveries. The history of pulsar astronomy at Molonglo is reviewed and a brief account of current observation programs is given.

Time variations in both the NGC 6334 and Orion OH sources have been reported by the Berkeley group. The variations in NGC 6334 have been partially confirmed by the group at the Lincoln Laboratory, who show that the variations are confined to the southern source, NGC 6334B. These latter authors find variable components at —6.6 and —7.9 km/s at 1665 MHz and at —8.9 km/s at 1667 MHz. Both features at 1665 MHz appear to vary, both up and down, with time; during 1966 October the characteristic rise time was nine days or less. The Berkeley results show that the linear polarization was constant during a two-week period in 1965 October. The Lincoln Laboratory results from 1966 October to 1967 June show that both the degree and sense of circular polarization remain constant as the three features vary with time.

A total of 18 radio sources selected on the basis of steep low-frequency radio spectra have been searched for the presence of millisecond pulsars using the Molonglo Observatory synthesis telescope. The search covered pulsar periods down to 2 ms with a limiting sensitivity of approximately 10 mJy. No pulsars were detected.

Pulse arrival time measurements allow the determination of accurate pulsar periods, period derivatives and, provided the data span is at least one year, precise pulsar positions. If observations are frequent and reasonably regular, irregularities in the period can also be investigated. To minimize the effect of possible variations in dispersion measure, it is important that these observations be made at a relatively high frequency, preferably above 1 GHz. To eliminate pulse shape variations due to variable ionospheric Faradayrotation, the pulse total intensity or one of the circular polarizations must be recorded.

During 1968 we have found at Parkes several types of emission in the lines of the 18 cm quadruplet of the ground-state OH molecule. This note describes a strong source of 1612 MHz emission near galactic longitude 331°.

OH emission was originally detected in the vicinity of HII regions, and a search of a large number of HII regions showed that about a third had associated OH emission. This type of emission is usually strongest at 1665 MHz, and is also seen at 1667 MHz and weakly on one of the satellite lines.

The proposal made to ASTEC for an Australian systhesis telescope (AST) is for a high-sensitivity, high-resolution synthesis array to be located at the Australian National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Parkes, and used in conjunction with the existing 64-m antenna at that site as a national facility (Wellington 1976). During the past 18 months a design study group consisting of representatives from the Australian National University, University of Sydney, University of Tasmania and CSIRO has been investigating the design of such an array. This paper reports on one aspect of this design, the array configuration.

There are many reasons why it is important to increase the number of known pulsars. Not only do pulsar searches continue to improve statistical estimates of, for example, pulsar birthrates, lifetimes and the Galactic distribution, but they continue to turn up interesting and, in some cases, unique individual pulsars. In the early days of pulsar astronomy, the Molonglo radio telescope led the world as a pulsar detection instrument. However, the Parkes radio telescope, with its frequency versatility and greater tracking ablility, combined with sensitive receivers and powerful computer detection algorithms, is now the world’s most successful telescope at finding pulsars. The Parkes multibeam survey, begun in 1997, by itself will come close to doubling the number of known pulsars. Parkes has also been very successful at finding millisecond pulsars (MSPs), especially in globular clusters. One third of the known MSPs have been found in just one cluster, 47 Tucanae.

The first direct detection of gravitational waves may be made through observations of pulsars. The principal aim of pulsar timing-array projects being carried out worldwide is to detect ultra-low frequency gravitational waves (f ∼ 10−9–10−8 Hz). Such waves are expected to be caused by coalescing supermassive binary black holes in the cores of merged galaxies. It is also possible that a detectable signal could have been produced in the inflationary era or by cosmic strings. In this paper, we review the current status of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project (the only such project in the Southern hemisphere) and compare the pulsar timing technique with other forms of gravitational-wave detection such as ground- and space-based interferometer systems.

The development of the radio remnant of SN 1987A has been followed using the Australia Telescope Compact Array since its first detection in 1990 August. The remnant has been observed at four frequencies, 1.4, 2.4, 4.8, and 8.6 GHz, at intervals of 4–6 weeks since the first detection. These data are combined with the 843 MHz data set of Ball et al. (2001) obtained at Molonglo Observatory to study the spectral and temporal variations of the emission. These observations show that the remnant continues to increase in brightness, with a larger rate of increase at recent times. They also show that the radio spectrum is becoming flatter, with the spectral index changing from −0.97 to −0.88 over the 11 years. In addition, at roughly yearly intervals since 1992, the remnant has been imaged at 9 GHz using super-resolution techniques to obtain an effective synthesised beamwidth of about 0″.5. The imaging observations confirm the shell morphology of the radio remnant and show that it continues to expand at ˜3000 km s−1. The bright regions of radio emission seen on the limb of the shell do not appear to be related to the optical hot spots which have subsequently appeared in surrounding circumstellar material.

The future of centimetre and metre-wave astronomy lies with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a telescope under development by a consortium of 17 countries that will be 50 times more sensitive than any existing radio facility. Most of the key science for the SKA will be addressed through large-area imaging of the Universe at frequencies from a few hundred MHz to a few GHz. The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a technology demonstrator aimed in the mid-frequency range, and achieves instantaneous wide-area imaging through the development and deployment of phased-array feed systems on parabolic reflectors. The large field-of-view makes ASKAP an unprecedented synoptic telescope that will make substantial advances in SKA key science. ASKAP will be located at the Murchison Radio Observatory in inland Western Australia, one of the most radio-quiet locations on the Earth and one of two sites selected by the international community as a potential location for the SKA. In this paper, we outline an ambitious science program for ASKAP, examining key science such as understanding the evolution, formation and population of galaxies including our own, understanding the magnetic Universe, revealing the transient radio sky and searching for gravitational waves.

A new set of software applications and libraries for use in the archival and analysis of pulsar astronomical data is introduced. Known collectively as the psrchive scheme, the code was developed in parallel with a new data storage format called psrfits, which is based on the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS). Both of these projects utilise a modular, object-oriented design philosophy. psrchive is an open source development environment that incorporates an extensive range of c++ object classes and pre-built command line and graphical utilities. These deal transparently and simultaneously with multiple data storage formats, thereby enhancing data portability and facilitating the adoption of the psrfits file format. Here, data are stored in a series of modular header–data units that provide flexibility and scope for future expansion. As it is based on FITS, various standard libraries and applications may be used for data input, output, and visualisation. Both psrchive and psrfits are made publicly available to the academic community in the hope that this will promote their widespread use and acceptance.

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 ms pulsars is being observed at three radio-frequency bands, 50 cm (~700 MHz), 20 cm (~1400 MHz), and 10 cm (~3100 MHz), with observations at intervals of two to three 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 10 of the 20 pulsars, rms timing residuals are less than 1 μs 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 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.