National Sun Watching Day 2020 live stream
During the KNVWS National Sun Watching Day July 5, 2020, live streaming from the radio telescope was performed twice, while the radio telescope was pointed at the Sun and explanations were given about the radio telescope and the radio waves emitted by the Sun. Each demonstration lasted about half an hour.
Due to the Covid-19 measures, the radio telescope was closed to visitors. That is why CAMRAS volunteers Tammo Jan Dijkema and Ard Hartsuijker provided this online demonstration.
The Sun is the closest star to Earth and it is fascinating to view in visible light. This can be done safely with special filters and telescopes. Without these filters, the intensity of the Sun is extremely harmful to your eyes. Amateur astronomers and observatories have the right equipment to observe the Sun safely.
The Sun also produces waves outside of visible light, such as infrared (heat), ultraviolet (tones or burns the skin) and radio waves. The special thing about radio waves is that clouds and rain do not block the radio waves from the Sun. The radio telescope is a wonderful instrument to receive the radio waves from the Sun and demonstrate it in a live stream. The wind seemed to become a bummer in the morning with a strong gust of wind – which turned off the engines – but remained calm after that gust.
More than 900 viewers took part in one of the two live streams. After that, the live streams were viewed at least 8000 times on July 5 and 6.
Of the two live streams – about 35 minutes each – Tammo Jan made the 29-minute version below, putting the highlights together and leaving out some imperfections. (Dutch spoken)
RTV Drenthe made the following 2-minute news item of this activity. (Dutch spoken)
When viewing the live streams on YouTube, the chat was used to ask questions. These were often answered by other viewers because Tammo Jan and Ard were the only ones in the telescope and could not continuously monitor the chat.
Chat questions & answers
Click on a question in the fold menu below to read the corresponding answer.
Until we remove them, the original live streams can still be viewed at:
– first session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aX-c1PdSCA
– second session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JkerJHFYCA