I-LOFAR Event in the European Space Expo dome

On the evening of Friday, June 7, our colleagues at I-LOFAR (the Irish LOFAR consortium) will be running an event showcasing what a LOFAR station could do for Irish astronomy (and the whole of the International LOFAR Telescope) in the European Space Expo dome which will at that time be visiting Trinity College Dublin.

Learn about LOFAR at the Winchester Science Festival

The inaugural Winchester Science Festival is taking place over the weekend of 20th-22nd July 2012. This event will be celebrating the best of Hampshire and World Science and feautures some of the best science communicators in the UK.

The Sunday programme includes a lecture at 2pm on "Exploring the low-frequency Universe with LOFAR", given by Dr Anna Sciafe from Southampton University.



Talk topic: The LOFAR radio telescope is currently the largest radio telescope network in the world. And the westernmost station of this vast array is located in Hampshire, a mere 10 miles from Winchester. Please join Dr Scaife for a fascinating journey into deepest space and deepest Hampshire as she discusses the truly amazing facilities we have on our very doorstep. 


 Tickets for the event are on sale at the Winchester Discovery Centre, costing £3. 

Open Day at LOFAR Core

Post taken from: LOFAR news, ASTRON.

On Saturday 12 May, ASTRON is organising a LOFAR open day during the 'SNN EU Kijkdagen'. During this event, organised by the Northern Netherlands Provinces (SNN), organisations in the Netherlands that received funding from SNN open their doors to the public. It is not necessary to sign in for the open day.

Theme

ASTRON organises fun activities for young and old near the LOFAR field. The theme SNN has for this day is "Innovation". A theme that suits ASTRON perfectly! On this open day you can find out how LOFAR exactly works and how this innovative idea for a giant telescope was developed.

Activities

The LOFAR open day committee is in full swing organising activities. The activities range from a mini-fun lab where kids make their own flash light (for a small charge), workshops 'make your own pulsar' (exploded star) and a journey through the Universe in the mobile planetarium of the RuG to tours on the LOFAR field and 'looking' at the sky yourself with a small radio telescope and a solar telescope. Free posters are also available for kids. You can see preview here.

The activities during the LOFAR open day are all free of charge and parking is possible on the location (free). Keep an eye on this web page to stay up to date!

Location

The open day takes place at the Exloërweg 13. There will be signs near the location that you can follow to the open day premises.

For more information, keep an eye on the ASTRON website on www.astron.nl.

LOFAR at the BAA Radio Astronomy Group 2011 General Meeting

At the 2011 General Meeting of the British Astronomical Association's Radio Astronomy Group (to be held 12th November 2011 at the Humfrey Rooms, Castilian Terrace, Northampton), the two keynote speakers have a LOFAR-UK link. They are Professor Paul Alexander, who is Head of the Astrophysics Group at Cambridge is the project leader for the UK contribution to the Square Kilometre Array (and a member of LOFAR-UK), and Dr Ben Stappers from Jodrell Bank who is Head of the Pulsar Science Working Group for the LOFAR radio telescope (and Technical Co-ordinator for LOFAR-UK). 


For more details see the BAA Radio Group website. 

Studying Black Holes with LOFAR at the IoP

Another LOFAR talk for NSEW next week:

IoP talk: Studying Black Holes, Pulsars and the Explosive Universe with The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR)

Wednesday 16th March 2011. 7-8pm. LTM University of Surrey. 

Open to the public, admission free

by Martin Bell (Southampton PhD Student who helped to build LOFAR-UK)

The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) is Europe's newest and most sophisticated radio telescope. It is also one of Europe's largest radio telescopes; it consists of a network of small radio telescopes – or 'ears' - spread out across Europe, which are connected together via the internet. When connected together this network forms a European size radio telescope and is the largest on Earth. The UK has just completed its contribution to the European LOFAR project with the construction of the LOFAR Chilbolton telescope (30 minutes North of Southampton). Using this network of telescopes we can 'listen in' on the most explosive and energetic events in the Universe. In this talk we will find out how the LOFAR radio telescope works; how we can use it to study Black Holes and Pulsars; and also what the future holds for radio astronomy.  

LOFAR UK is supported by SEPnet.

More details.

Tuning into the Universe in Portsmouth

As part of National Science and Engineering Week, (11-20th March 2011) there are several LOFAR related talks happening next week. For example:

Tuning into the Universe

Wednesday 16 March 2011, 6.00-7.00 pm, Portland Building, Portland Street, Portsmouth PO1 3AH

A public lecture by Dr David Bacon, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth. Billions of light years away, galaxies have given out radio waves that speed across the Universe. Light now, some of them have reached a humble field a few miles outside Winchester, where they are being received by some of the antennae of the new LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR). This is an astonishing Europe-wide radio telescope, which will be used to try to make important discoveries about galaxies and the Universe as a whole. In this talk, I will describe LOFAR and the attempts we are making to use it to probe the furthest reaches of the Universe. David Bacon is a research fellow at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Portsmouth University. He is co-ordinator for Cosmology in the Surveys Key Science Project with LOFAR.

AUDIENCE: General public and school groups are welcome to this free event, book through events@port.ac.uk

More details.