The Australia Telescope Compact Array has won an award for best Australian scientific site on the Internet.

The award was presented as part of the first annual Australian Financial Review / Telstra Australian Internet Awards.

The 'ATCA Live!' site is maintained by the Australia Telescope National Facility, a part of CSIRO.

According to the ATNF Deputy Director, Dr John Whiteoak, the 'ATCA Live!' site was first released in May 1996. It is updated every ten seconds, to reflect the operation of the observatory and special astronomical events.

"The 'ATCA Live!' page was designed partly to give professional astronomers a real-time display of the operations of the Telescope," said Dr Whiteoak. "But it was also designed to give the general public a window into the science of radio astronomy, and give people a real taste of what a major observatory does.

"The present web page is just the first step. We will be adding many new features to show the working of the Telescope, and the research which our astronomers are doing.

"We believe that we are leading the way for other scientific institutes in using the web to interact with researchers and the public," said Dr Whiteoak.

The Internet Awards were presented to winners in Sydney last week. Winning pages are entitled to display a special logo.

Information about the Awards can be found at http://www.webawards.info.au and the award winning Australia Telescope Compact Array site is at http://wwwnar.atnf.csiro.au/www/public/atca_live/atca_live.html

More information from: Helen Sim, tel: 02-9372 4251, E-mail: hsim@atnf.csiro.au
or Derek McKay, tel: 067-904038, E-mail:dmckay@atnf.csiro.au