Students tweeting telescope takeover

Peter Dinham
Wednesday, 12 August 2009 06:44

Science - Space

“ASKAP, as well as being a world-leading telescope in its own right, will be an important test-bed for the future Square Kilometre Array (SKA), an international radio telescope that will be the world’s largest and most powerful.

CSIRO SKA Director Professor Brian Boyle said PULSE@Parkes was an “inspiring program,” and he said the education program would be extended to ASKAP and later to the SKA.

“We are putting frontline astronomical research straight into the hands of the young people who are going to be the ones using the SKA.”

ATNF education officer and PULSE@Parkes coordinator, Rob Hollow, said there are plans to start getting pulsar data from a second, smaller dish at Parkes that has been built to test equipment for ASKAP.

“From there we’ll be looking to make other kinds of observations, such as studying the hydrogen gas in space that is the raw material for forming stars.”

The CSIRO started the PULSE@Parkes program in late 2007 and more than 20 sessions have now been run, with over 250 students having the chance to observe directly with the Parkes telescope.

Up to 24 students can take part in an observing session with the Parkes telescope and prior to the session they receive an introduction to radio astronomy, pulsars, and the nuts and bolts of observing.

During the actual session they talk to an astronomer present at Parkes via videolink, and with full control of the telescope, take real data and analyse it to determine, for instance, the distance of the pulsars they observe.