Daily Image
16-06-2010
PULSE@Parkes@ASTRON
| Submitter: | Marijke Haverkorn |
| Description: | On Friday 28 May, 21 4-Havo students of the Emelwerda College in Emmeloord stood in an astronomer's shoes for one day and observed pulsars with the Parkes 64-m single dish in Parkes, NSW, Australia, operated by CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CASS) (which includes the former ATNF). The students participated in an Australian astronomy outreach program called PULSE@Parkes, in which high school students from Australia, the UK and now the Netherlands get the chance to do real astronomical observations. (See http://outreach.atnf.csiro.au/education/pulseatparkes/ for more info about the program.) In small groups, the students took turns to steer the telescope to a pulsar they themselves selected, monitored the quality of their observations, and then processed their own data to obtain an estimate of the pulsar's distance. Apart from broadening the students' horizon, their observations also help build up a pulsar archive to be used for the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (to detect gravitational waves) or as a counterpart for pulsars detected in gamma-rays with Fermi. For the first science paper from this program, see http://arxiv.org/abs/0907.4847 The three initiators of PULSE@Parkes, two of whom came to the Netherlands especially for this day, can all be seen in the image. Robert Hollow (CASS) is seen introducing the program and awarding a PULSE@Parkes certificate to Emelwerda teacher Cornelis de Boer, while David Champion (MPIfR) helps the students to interpret the data they are taking. George Hobbs (CASS), working as the local astronomer in the Parkes control room, can be seen on a skype screen. Locally, Mike Sipior, Jason Hessels, Thijs Coenen, Roy Smits and Marijke Haverkorn were setting up, organising, helping out, and doing a bit of english-dutch interpreting here and there. |
| Copyright: | ASTRON, Robert Hollow |
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