A huntsman spider appears on CCTV looming over a giant antenna at Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex. Photo: Richard Stephenson.
A huntsman spider has caused a stir after appearing on a security camera, looming menacingly over a deep-space antenna dish at Tidbinbilla, outside Canberra.
Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex staff were checking security cameras before stowing the huge 34-metre-wide deep space antenna when the arachnid appeared.
“It looked like it was trying to eat an antenna,” operations supervisor Richard Stephenson said.
The whole room gathered around the security screens to witness the eight-legged interloper.
“The spider looked as if it was trying to get to the highest point,” he said with a laugh, “which involved climbing a camera tower and perching in front of the screen.”
Mr Stephenson said the cameras often catch fleeting shots of insects and birds staring down the lens, but the spider is “the one that made us laugh the most,” he said.
“This spider seems to have set up home on the camera at the moment until he’s forcibly removed.”
The DSS-35 antenna came into service in 2014 as part of the Deep Space Network, which helps provides communications for international space agency missions.
The spider offered staff a laugh on a miserable Canberra morning.
Mr Stephenson said a maintenance crew may have to remove it … with a very long broom.
“But today I don’t expect anybody is going to be going out because it’s pouring down with rain,” he said.
“So he’s safe for today.”
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