The Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, is a 64 metre steerable radio telescope, originally completed in 1961, which remains in operation today and is the second largest movable antenna radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. It is famous for having received television images from the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969 and, in 1962, made the observations that made the connection between extragalactic radio sources and active galactic nuclei, now called quasars. More than half the known pulsars were discovered by this instrument.
Two microwave ovens in the astronomers’ kitchen at the facility are famous for having caused the peryton observations which were originally thought to be fast radio bursts originating outside the Milky Way galaxy.
The Parkes Radio Telescope was the subject of the 2000 Australian film The Dish, telling the story of receiving the Apollo 11 television transmission.