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03-08-2012
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Klokhuis @ LOFAR, WSRT and Dwingeloo

Submitter: Joeri van Leeuwen
Description: Last month, the crew for Klokhuis filmed at LOFAR, Westerbork, the NOVA optical lab, and the ASTRON control room for an episode on "Extraterrestrial Life". Klokhuis is a long-running Dutch TV show that is aimed at elementary and young high-school children. Per episode, a "documentary" style exploration of a science or arts subject is combined with songs and skits about that subject. Subjects are quite wide ranging ("What are ticks? How do baseball players throw so well? How are premature babies cared for?" are some of last week's topics). Astronomy topics recently covered on Klokhuis were the VLT, ALMA, Herschel, and WSRT.

In the October "Science Month", Klokhuis runs a series of more in-depth episodes (exact broadcast dates TBA) on a handful of big science questions. One is, of course, on Aliens. In this episode, Eddy Elswijk and presenter Nienke de la Rive Box explain and demonstrate, for 10-year olds, how planet spectroscopy works! Then on to planet characterization, to looking for signs of life in atmospheres, and to monitoring of any ET signals. Excitement all around when a head set plugged in to Westerbork picks up regular ticking noises from space! Joeri van Leeuwen gets to explain what amazing stars produce these. A bigger telescope is of course needed -- LOFAR.

Conclusion: doing an interview 50 meters above the LOFAR field on a windy day is very exciting; and the view is amazing.

Copyright: JvL/Debru
 
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