The telescope is steered by mechanical rotation of the cylindrical paraboloids about their long axis, and by phasing the feed elements along the arms.

The east–west arm was split into 88 individual elements to form the current Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope.

[citation needed] The design of the original system owes much to pioneering radio astronomy by Grote Reber in the US and Australia, that informed Mills' work.

[3] After a five-year break in which analog equipment was upgraded the observatory is now used to detect fast radio bursts and do research on pulsars.

Since 2003 work has proceeded on the SKA Molonglo Prototype (SKAMP) which has included fitting new wide-band feeds, low-noise amplifiers, digital filterbanks and correlator, in order to demonstrate 300-1420 MHz continuous frequency coverage and multibeam mode operation.

[6] This effort is a collaboration between the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF), the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Information and Communications Technology Centre, and the University of Sydney.