News & Blog – Dwingeloo Radio Telescope

Kick-off ‘COGITO in Space’ videos

February 13, 2019/in Art and culture, Event-past /by Daniela De Paulis (IU0IDY)

The kick-off ‘COGITO in Space’ on November 5, 2018, marked the first public performance of the interdisciplinary ‘COGITO in Space’ project in ASTRON and at the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. Speakers at the symposium in ASTRON’s Van de Hulst Auditorium were Frank White (The Overview Effect), Fred Spier (Big History and the Future of Humanity) and Nicole Stott (interview with the retired NASA astronaut). The symposium was moderated by Josephine Bosma. The symposium was continued in the radio telescope by sending brain activity from a visitor into the cosmos.

The symposium-part and the radio telescope-part of the COGITO project were filmed by Sandro Bocci. Special thanks to ASTRON (www.astron.nl) and CAMRAS. ‘COGITO in Space’ is a project by media artist Daniela de Paulis (www.cogitoinspace.org).

In the fold menus below, you can choose a video of the COGITO in Space project. Once a fold menu topic is opened you can click on the picture to open the film registration of that topic.

‘COGITO in Space’ Symposium PART 1

Speakers: Frank White (The Overview Effect) and Fred Spier (Big History and the Future of Humanity).

‘COGITO in Space’ symposium PART 2

Speaker: Nicole Stott (interview with the retired NASA astronaut).

‘COGITO in Space’ Dwingeloo Radio Telescope

The ‘COGITO in Space’ project is staged at the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope in The Netherlands. A visitor in the cabin of the radio telescope sends her or his brain activity into the cosmos while viewing an immersive video of an experimental interpretation of the Earth as seen from Space. The visitor is fitted with a sophisticated encephalogram (EEG) system and a virtual reality headset; the preparation is carried by three neuroscientists Guillaume Dumas, Robert Oostenveld and Stephen Whitmarshand and takes approximately fifteen minutes. Once the preparation is completed, in real time the brain activity is converted into sound and transmitted into space by the artist Daniela De Paulis, using the antenna of the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope pointing in standstill. The brain activity is thus transmitted across a large portion of the sky, without a specific target, highlighting the Earth’s rotation and our place in the cosmos while the experience takes place. Before entering the cabin and transmitting their brain waves into space, visitors are guided by a planetary scientist to explore the area surrounding the scientific facilities. The naturalistic visit is based on principles of Big History and aims at inspiring in the visitors a stronger sense of connection with the Earth’s habitat, before symbolically leaving the planet.

New photo of Lunar farside and Earth

February 5, 2019/in Amateur radio, Astronomy /by Tammo Jan Dijkema

On Monday 4th February 2019, the Dwingeloo telescope downloaded a new photo of Earth and the lunar farside. This photo, taken Sunday 3rd February 2019 at 15:20 UTC, shows the lunar farside and Earth (with South America in view). The lunar farside has more visible craters than the side of the Moon which faces Earth.

This photo was taken by the Chinese satellite LongJiang 2 in a lunar orbit. One of the devices on this satellite was made by students from the Chinese Harbin Institute of Technology. They put a (relatively) simple webcam on it that can take pictures on command. These photos are then sent to Earth with a little antenna. Because the satellite is so far away, receiving the signal requires a large radio antenna. The Chinese have asked the CAMRAS volunteers at the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope to help with this. Downloading this photo from the satellite to the Dwingeloo Telescope (16 KB in size) took 20 minutes.

The little Chinese satellite that took this photo has been in lunar orbit since the beginning of 2018. It ‘took a ride’ on the rocket that launched the bigger QueQiao satellite. That satellite also hosts antennas from ASTRON, the original owner and professional neighbour of the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. ASTRON hopes to use the antennas on the big satellite to receive signals from just after the Big Bang as part of the Netherlands-China Low-frequency Explorer (NCLE) project.

The amateur radio payload that took this picture was developed at the Harbin Institute of Technology by Mingchuan Wei (BG2BHC), Hu Chaoran (BG2CRY), Tai Mier (KG5TEP), Zhao Yuhao (BG2DGR). Taking this photo was coordinated by Wei. While downloading this picture, the CAMRAS Dwingeloo Radio Telescope was operated by Cees Bassa, Tammo Jan Dijkema and Vanessa Moss. The commands were uplinked to the satellite by German radio amateur Reinhard Kuehn (DK5LA) with his home-built yagi array. See more details in blog post Our precious Earth and the lunar far side.

The photo has been color-corrected. Since the satellite camera lacks an infrared filter, colors come out too red. The original is below; we edited it to balance the colors, and make the Moon greyscale.

In October 2018, the Dwingeloo Telescope also cooperated in receiving a lunar farside photo (see blog post Our precious Earth and the lunar far side) and even a time-lapse showing the Earth disappear behind the Moon (see blog post Time-laps of the Earth appearing behind the Moon). At that time, the satellite was closer to the Moon, so the entire Moon did not fit in the picture. In the next months, we expect to receive more of these photos. But in August 2019, this adventure will end: then LongJiang 2 will crash in a controlled manner onto the lunar surface in a controlled manner. QueQiao will continue operating for the foreseeable future.