News & Blog – Dwingeloo Radio Telescope

Special opening January 12, 2019

November 30, 2018/in Event-upcoming /by CAMRAS-PR

Stargazing with telescopes and Dwingeloo Radio Telescope

The radio telescope is open on Saturday night, January 12, from 19:00 to 22:00.

In clear weather there are telescopes for stargazing next to the large radio telescope and we tell you about the stars that can be seen there.
In the radio telescope we continuously give demonstrations of a pulsar (neutron star) and/or hydrogen in the Milky Way.
The demonstration in the radio telescope always goes on, even in cloudy weather, because radio waves go right through the clouds.
In the Muller House, presentations of about a quarter of an hour are given and a demonstration of meteor scatter.
The program is similar to the CAMRAS program of the National Stargazing Days and the Dark-sky Night.

For access in the radio telescope we ask € 2 and for youth € 1. It is not possible to pay with pin.
Stargazing and listening to the presentations in the Muller House is free for everyone.

Tip: take a flashlight with you, but close to the stargazers use it moderately and preferably covered with red cellophane.

The radio telescope is easily accessible by bike; the car can be parked at the Staatsbosbeheer parking lot; from there it is about 15 minutes walk to the telescope.

The reason for this extra opening is the 100th anniversary of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). To commemorate this, it is celebrated worldwide for a year with all sorts of activities.
The birthday IAU100 starts in January 2019 with a long weekend stargazing: 100 Hours of Astronomy, four days and nights, from 10-13 January 2019, with amateur and professional astronomers, lovers of astronomy and the general public to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for the Universe.

In the Netherlands, 100 Hours of Astronomy is ‘Nederland kijkt sterren van 10-13 januari 2019‘.
In the Netherlands, this long weekend will involve several activities, of which the special opening of the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope on Saturday night, January 12, is one.

Photo: CAMRAS (Cees Bassa)

EUCARA 2018 conference report

November 22, 2018/in Astronomy, Event-past /by Simon Bijlsma (PA7SB)

On Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 September, the third European conference on Amateur Radio Astronomy, EUCARA 2018, took place at the Astropeiler Stockert Radio Telescope in Germany. There we received a warm hospitality from the Stockert volunteers. There were 59 participants from 8 different countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

From CAMRAS the following volunteers participated: Paul Boven, Simon Bijlsma, Frans de Jong, Jan van Muijlwijk and Harm Munk. Some were accompanied by their partner.

Eleven participants gave presentations about their astronomy projects. Frans and Simon gave a lecture about the development of the meteor scatter webSDR and the detection results with this webSDR receiver. Paul gave a presentation on the new frontend in development of the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope and on VLBI with the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope.

The program and the downloadable presentations are on https://astropeiler.de/european-conference-amateur-radio-astronomy-2018.

On Saturday afternoon there was an excursion to the nearby gigantic 100-meter Effelsberg Radio Telescope and the adjacent LOFAR field.

On Saturday evening the day was evaluated while enjoying a conference dinner and ideas were exchanged about the common hobby of amateur radio astronomy.

On Sunday, Prof. Dr. Michael Kramer from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy gave a lecture on Einstein’s general theory of relativity and how the astronomers at the Max Planck Institute today use these insights to explain the phenomena observed in the universe, such as gravitational waves, black holes and neutron stars.

The Sunday afternoon was reserved for a personal meeting between the participants and the Stockert volunteers and to enjoy the beautiful weather and the view of the beautiful landscapes in the Eifel.

Worth mentioning is the impressive poster session of Stockert: with several tiny antennas and the Adalm SDR set they were able to detect hydrogen in the Milky Way.