Goodbye and Thankyou to Derek

LOFAR-UK would like to say a public thank you and goodbye to Derek McKay-Bukowski, who will cease his duties as the LOFAR Station Manager for UK608 (Chilbolton) at the end of March. Derek has been an integral part of LOFAR-UK through construction to ongoing operations, including the weeks on end without breaks when he slept in a small room at Chilbolton! We are all convinced that the LOFAR-UK station would not be the success it is without his dedication and attention to detail. 

Derek checking one of the LBA antennas during installation at Chilbolton in June 2010. Image credit: Chris Ison/PA Wire

Derek's flat-pack-station presentation at INTECH for the LOFAR-UK opening (which you can watch here) will long be remembered, as will his entertaining health and safety briefings. 

Derek (left) assisting Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell at the official opening of UK608 in September 2010. 

We must also mention Derek's contributions to LOFAR-UK in the early part of 2012. Derek went well beyond the call of duty when storms caused damage to some of the tiles and LBAs and his rapid intervention prevented this freak event from turning into a much more costly repair. 

Derek (centre in white hat) directing volunteers helping with repairs to an HBA tile in Febuary 2012. Image credit: STFC.

It is with real sadness that we must say goodbye to Derek from the LOFAR-UK, and we him all the best in his future work with the KAIRA project in Finland. 

LOFAR-UK Video on the Jodcast

A Jodcast video released this weekend shows Jodcast presenters visiting the LOFAR-UK station in Chilbolton and interviews with several LOFAR-UK scientists helping out with the repairs following the big storm last January.

July - a good time to install a LOFAR station

Two years about LOFAR-UK was blogging about installing our station (with much thanks to Derek for such regular updates).

Last year I gave instructions on how to relive this by following the live installations in Finland (HBAs) and Sweden.

The Swedish array was opened in October 2011, but the short summers in Finland, mean the rest of the Finnish station is being installed this year.


So again the @KAIRAProject are working hard installing their low band antennas (LBAs) and live blogging and tweeting the experience. 


Here's their progress of LBA installation as of Friday (colours indicate installation on different days).

Keep up the good work, and enjoy. 

LOFAR "geeks" talk at Intech

By popular demand following the Intech Space Lecture on LOFAR last November, Derek Mckay-Bukoski will give a second talk at Intech on LOFAR focusing  on the technical aspects of the project.

Thursday 1st March 2012, 7.30pm.

Tonight at Intech - LOFAR-UK Talk

You can have the chance to hear all about LOFAR, and the installation and running of the UK LOFAR station in Chilbolton in person soon. Our LOFAR-UK station manager, Derek McKay-Bukowski will speak about

"Digital Static: Hampshire's new world-class radio telescope" this evening as part of the Intech Science Centre's Space Lecture Series.

Tickets are still available according to @INTECH_Science this morning.

LOFAR-UK Observes the Active Sun

Over the last few days, our Sun has been very active. Apart from the dedicated solar instruments monitoring this activity, we've also been able to observe it with the LOFAR radio telescope at Chilbolton. This facility comprises two fields of small antennas, that link together to perform as a powerful VHF radio telescope. Although it is also possible to link the LOFAR system in the UK with others across Europe, on the 28th September 2011, it was operating independently.

All Sky Image taken from LOFAR-UK, 28.09.11 (Credit: ASTRON/STFC)

At 16:10 UTC (= 5:10 pm local time), LOFAR Chilbolton was used to record an 'all-sky' image. Even before calibration and analysis, this image shows the bright objects in the radio sky. On the left hand side of the image there are, from top to bottom, Cassiopeia-A (a supernova remnant), Cygnus-A (a radio-galaxy) and the broader region which is the centre of our own Galaxy. However, to the right of the image, the Sun can be seen with extremely strong intensity, just before it set below the western horizon.

Menno Norden (ASTRON) and Derek McKay-Bukowski (RAL Space)

(Press release from RAL; KAIRA blog post.). 

Hear about LOFAR from the UK Station Manager

You can have the chance to hear all about LOFAR, and the installation and running of the UK LOFAR station in Chilbolton in person soon. Our LOFAR-UK station manager, Derek McKay-Bukowski will speak about

"Digital Static: Hampshire's new world-class radio telescope" on 9th November this year as part of the Intech Science Centre's Space Lecture Series. Book early to avoid disappointment.

Chilbolton & Wherwell Local Information Day

On Saturday 14 May 2011 a visitors' day was held at the LOFAR Chilbolton site. This was a requirement of our LOFAR planning application, namely that we host some form of public-information event for the local communities of Wherwell and Chilbolton Village. Three members of the LOFAR-UK team (Derek McKay-Bukowski, Brian Ellison and Malcolm Coe) were at hand to show visitors around the Low-Band and High-Band Arrays and to give them a rare glimpse inside the RF-container.

In all, it was a very successful day, with lots of interesting questions. In total we had over 75 guests at the site. We certainly hoped that all our visitors enjoyed the event. Hopefully, we will be able to hold an open day for the general public sometime in the future as well. And many thanks to Brian and Malcolm for giving up part of their weekend to assist Derek with explaining the LOFAR-UK facility.

Brian Ellison (in the high-vis vest) explains how the LBA aerials work to locals including Graham and Brian Patterson (on his left and right respectively).

Project KAIRA - LOFAR in Finland

Featured today on the ASTRON image of the day are HBA tiles undergoing winter testing in Finland (Image reproduced below).

At LOFAR-UK we're delighted to welcome our Finnish friends to the International LOFAR Telescope. You can see details of the Project KAIRA (the Finnish LOFAR work) on their website and blog (both in English). As Chilbolton moves into an operational phase, and the big task of installation and commissioning has lessened, our LOFAR-UK Chilbolton Site Manager is now spending some of his time in Finland working on project KAIRA, so I think we can expect lots of updates on the progress on their blog.

LOFAR-UK on ASTRON Image of the Day

The LOFAR-UK Chilbolton Station has appeared again on the ASTRON Daily Image, this time for October 6th 2010.

Derek's Talk at the Opening

On Monday I filmed the speech given by Derek McKay-Bukowski (LOFAR-UK Project Manager) at the evening event in the Intech planetarium. Thanks are owed from all of use to Derek for making LOFAR-UK such a success.

Some great pictures from the LBA installation

I just updated the main LOFAR website adding some new header images. They were taken from this wonderful series of images of the LBA installation kindly sent to us by Chris Ison of the Press Association (reproduced with permission). Chris visited the LBA installation on the second day of the main week (ie. the Tuesday).

In the first four images Derek McKay-Bukowski (installation manager) checks the alignment of an LBA. Derek personally quality checked (and photographed) the installation of all 96 LBA... among his many other tasks during the installation.





A wide angle shot of the LBA field during the installation week. You can see the 25m dish in the background.