| Description: | Today, the 12th of June 2010, Her Majesty Queen Beatrix will inaugurate LOFAR, the largest radio telescope in the world. LOFAR is built according to a completely new concept: instead of using steerable dishes, it utilises a large number (25000!!!) of small antennas fixed on the ground. These antennas are distributed over 36 fields in the north of The Netherlands, and in Germany, England, France and Sweden. Optical fibres connect all antennas to a supercomputer in Groningen, where the images are made. LOFAR opens up a window for astronomical observation that will give a revolutionary new view on a very wide range of objects, including the early Universe, magnetic fields in galaxies, pulsars and transient sources, and cosmic rays.
LOFAR is the third radio telescope built in The Netherlands and, although with its innovative technology it marks the beginning of a new era in radio astronomy, it does fit in a long series of important achievements, both technical and astronomical. This excellent track record of Dutch radio astronomy is widely recognised. This is illustrated by the fact that, now including LOFAR, all Dutch radio telescopes were inaugurated by royalty. Pictures above show the opening of the Dwingeloo dish by Queen Juliana in 1956, and the opening of the WSRT, also by Juliana, in 1970. Both pictures also show Jan Oort, the father of Dutch radio astronomy, who guided Juliana through the opening of both instruments. The royal recognition of Dutch radio astronomy goes even further. The current office building of ASTRON was opened by Beatrix in 1996, while Prince Willem Alexander and (not yet Princess) Maxima visited ASTRON on their tour of the The Netherlands in 2001
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