Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
Information about ASTRON
Education
ASTRON offers high school students different ways of learning all about radio astronomy and ASTRON's telescopes: the Dwingeloo telescope, the Westerbork telescope and the LOFAR telescope.
Tour at ASTRON
For Dutch (primary and high school) students it is possible to have a guided tour at ASTRON and / or at the Westerbork telescope. However, we have a limited number of opportunities. For teachers who are interested, please contact Femke Boekhorst (boekhorst [at] astron [dot] nl).
Girls day
Every year, ASTRON, JIVE and the NOVA Optical/ Infrared group at ASTRON organise a Girlsday specifically for high school girls. The girls can participate in experiments and talk to female scientists and engineers to get a feel for the exciting world of astronomy and engineering. To know more about the Girlsday, take a look at the previous girlsday and/ or contact Femke Boekhorst: boekhorst [at] astron [dot] nl.
In the menu on top of this page, you can find links to everything about ASTRON's telescopes, about radio astronomy, multimedia etc. In the text below you can read what information you can find behind these links.
In this section you can find information about what radio astronomy is, observing at radio wavelenghts and how radio telescopes work.
Read all about ASTRON's radio telescopes: the Westerbork telescope, the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), the Dwingeloo telescope. Here you can also find information about the next generation of radio telescopes: the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
Working at ASTRON: what's that like?
Find out more about what it's like to work at ASTRON by getting an inside peak of the astronomers and engineers working there.
A list of opportunities of astronomy related activities at or nearby ASTRON.
The Dwingeloo Live! programme for high school students teaches students how a radio telescope works. Students can use the programme as part of their so called 'profielwerkstuk'. They can operate the Dwingeloo telescope themselves to search for pulsars, neutron stars that are formed when heavy stars explode at the end of their lives.
In the multimedia section you can find photo's, posters, films, newsletters and brochures about ASTRON, LOFAR, the Westerbork telescope and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), as well as the ASTRON annual reports. Also check out the SKA Comic books!
These links will take you to websites with more information about (radio) astronomy and other (radio) astronomy institutes in the Netherlands and the rest of the world.