Early Australian Optical and Radio Observations of Centaurus A

TL;DR

This paper reviews the early history of Australian observations of Centaurus A, highlighting optical and radio discoveries from the 19th and early 20th centuries, and summarizes subsequent studies up to 1960.

Contribution

It provides a historical overview of the initial optical and radio observations of Centaurus A by Australian astronomers and summarizes research developments until 1960.

Findings

First optical observation of NGC 5128 in 1826

Discovery of radio source Centaurus A in the 1950s

Summary of subsequent studies up to 1960

Abstract

The discoveries of the radio source Centaurus A and its optical counterpart NGC 5128 were important landmarks in the history of Australian astronomy. NGC 5128 was first observed in August 1826 by James Dunlop during a survey of southern objects at the Parramatta Observatory, west of the settlement at Sydney Cove. The observatory had been founded a few years earlier by Thomas Brisbane, the new governor of the British colony of New South Wales. Just over 120 years later, John Bolton, Gordon Stanley and Bruce Slee discovered the radio source Centaurus A at the Dover Heights field station in Sydney, operated by CSIRO's Radiophysics Laboratory (the forerunner of the Australia Telescope National Facility). This paper will describe this early historical work and summarise further studies of Centaurus A by other Radiophysics groups up to 1960.