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.

Nice Animations about Building LOFAR

Some nice animations about how LOFAR works and building LOFAR in the below movie (in Dutch). The English caption for the movie reads

A short animation consisting of all animations we have made for the 'Building LOFAR' documentary. The animations show how this new and innovative telescope works and waht is is capable off. The voice-over is Dutch in this case. English is also available and will be uploaded seperately as soon as possible. For more info and detals please visit bluemedia.nl

Talking about LOFAR on the Astronomy Now YouTube Channel

At NAM in Llandudno I talked with Nick Howes from Astronomy Now about the LOFAR project. The video was posted on the Astronomy Now YouTube Channel this week.

LOFAR in the Sky at Night Magazine Astronomy Vodcast

In this month's Astronomy vodcast from Sky at Night Magazine I talk with Wil Gater about the LOFAR project in general, LOFAR-UK, and the first peer reviewed science results from LOFAR.

Tuning into the Universe in Portsmouth

Dr. David Bacon, of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth (and SEPnet) gave a talk for National Science and Engineering week entitled "Tuning into the Universe". It was covered by the University of Portsmouth student news channel.

06. CCi Live_18-03-11 from CCi Live on Vimeo.

Coverage of the lecture starts at about 9.5 minutes in.

LOFAR on Motherboard TV

During the opening ceremony at the LOFAR-Chilbolton Station last September, one of the groups filming was Motherboard.TV. They have now released the below video on LOFAR (link):



You can also watch the 40 second trailer for the video on YouTube:

LOFAR-UK on OU Learn Channel

LOFAR-UK now appears on the OU Learn Channel. In the below video Dr Stephen Serjeant (reader in cosmology at the Open University and a member of LOFAR-UK) talks about the recent opening at Chilbolton about how LOFAR works and the exciting cosmology it will do, along with how the Open University is involved.

See LOFAR on BBC Horizon

Bob Nichol was on last night's episode of Horizon explaining how LOFAR can be used to learn about what might have happened before the Big Bang.

View it on iPlayer link.

Watch LOFAR-UK on Sky at Night on iPlayer

You can at the moment watch the report on LOFAR-UK on the Sky at Night on iPlayer. The start of the episode is at this link. The point at which the LOFAR-UK segment starts is here (roughly at the 23 minute mark).

Enjoy.

Transformational Science from a Revolutionary Radio Telescope

Now available on YouTube is the talk "Transformational Science from a Revolutionary Radio Telescope" given by Prof. Rob Fender (Southampton Uni/LOFAR-UK Project Leader) at the LOFAR-UK Chilbolton Opening on Monday 20th September 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.

Video of Soundbite Interviews

At the opening on Monday I filmed short "soundbite" interviews with many of the scientists involved in LOFAR-UK. The resulting video is a nice summary of the excitement felt within the UK community (and wider) about our involvement in LOFAR.

Video of Ribbon Cutting at Chilbolton

This video shows hi-lights from the part of the LOFAR-UK opening on Monday 20th September 2010 which took place at the Chilbolton Observatory itself. This included a ribbon cutting by Dame Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, and some real time observations of a bright pulsar (as explained by Dr. Aris Karastergiou).

Coverage of the Opening

There has been some online coverage of the opening events on Monday. Here's a collection of links. If you have something to add let me know.

BBC Science Article

Redorbit (Science, Space, Technology and Health News and Information)

Space Daily

Sify News (Indian News)

LOFAR-UK links:

Universities:

Birmingham,
Edinburgh,
Portsmouth,
Southampton,
Sussex

STFC Press Release (which includes a video of the ribbon cutting and the first pulsar observations)

Tour of Chilbolton LOFAR Station

Almost two weeks ago, Alejo and myself went up to Chilbolton to make a short video tour of the site explaining the three main components. We've now released the video on You Tube.



Hope you like it.

LOFAR Videos on YouTube

A couple of nice videos relating to LOFAR which were made for the opening in the Netherlands are now available on YouTube.

The first two are a collection of soundbites from famous radio astronomers along with images.



(part two start with a quote from Steve Rawlings from Oxford).


Then there is this "Introduction to LOFAR".

University of Portsmouth Video

The media crew from the University of Portsmouth visited the LBA build on Monday and made the below video.

Final preparations for the LBA build week

Work has been in full swing at Chilbolton, preparing for the LBA build week next week. The grids and ground sheets have now been transported from their initial storage position near the main Chilbolton Observatory building over to the edge of the LBA field (about 1/2 mile away), ready for installation.

It is certainly a long time since they first arrived on the back of a Dutch lorry, all the way back in November 2009. In fact, their arrival was announced in one of the very first posts here.

And here is some never before seen footage taken of the arrival back in November, when some of us went to Chilbolton to witness the arrival. In the movie you'll see/hear Bob Nichol, myself (Karen Masters) and Owain Davies (formerly of STFC) discussing what all the bits are, Owain and Derek McKay checking all the expected parts have arrived, and then Owain, Bob and Alejo Martinez-Sansigre breaking the seal on the RF container to get a first look inside.


And finally some pictures showing how they have just been moved out to the LBA field.

The grids were first chained up by Mark Andrews (pictured) and his crew, ready to be lifted.


Then they are carefully driven across the field using the heavy digger (driven by John Murray). There were two loads of grids, each load weighs just over 1 ton.


After moving all the grids, the ground sheets are then moved over.


Two piles of grids and one pallet-load of ground sheets. All ready on the side of the LBA field in preparation for their installation.

Video of the LBA Test Installation

Now available on YouTube is a short video of the LOFAR-UK LBA Test Installation (as previously described on the blog).



Hopefully the weather will be a bit more pleasant for the full installation next month.

What will LOFAR see?

Courtesy of BrentJens on You Tube, a sneak peak of the radio sky above LOFAR.



(link to movie.)

Explanation from BrentJens:

All sky movie of the radio sky above the LOFAR prototype near Exloo, The Netherlands, at a frequency of 50 MHz. The data were taken at 29 and 30 April 2008. The edge of the circle is the horizon. North is up, East towards the left. The movie shows Cas A and Cyg A twinkling (scintillating) like stars, as well as the Galactic centre rising and setting. Near the end of the movie, there are thunderstorms over Germany visible towards the east. The total duration of the observation was 24 hours.