Ready for HBA Installation

Another perfect dawn in Chilbolton.


The sun bursts over the horizon and a light mist caresses the LOFAR field at Chilbolton Observatory. HBA Installation starts today!

Solstice parhelion

On the evening of the summer solstice, Chilbolton Observatory was treated with the lovely spectacle of a parhelion. Parhelia (also known as "mock suns" or "sun dogs") are patches of light that appear 22 degrees to either side of the sun. The effect is caused by ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. The parhelion can be seen at the same altitude as the sun, near the right-hand edge of the image. The photograph, which sadly does not do the sight justice, was taken at 20:35 local time looking over the Observatory Test Range.

Dawn

Update from this morning at Chilbolton:

Another picture-perfect sunrise at Chilbolton Observatory. But what is special about to today is that within a few hours the installation of the LOFAR Low-Band Array shall begin!




Stay tuned for more updates all week!

Another day...

Another day... another beautiful shot of the Chilbolton 25m dish at sunset, as seen from the LOFAR site.

25m Sunset

Today here's wonderful shot of sunset behind the 25m dish at Chilbolton along with a background explanation from The Chilbolton Observatory Website.

This is the view of the Chilbolton 25m dish, as seen from the LOFAR site. The story of the Chilbolton Observatory is a tale of engineering triumph. A project that was as ambitious in its day as the Greenwich Millennium Dome, the Chilbolton Observatory was opened in 1967 amid great pomp and circumstance by the secretary of state for Education and Science. The ceremony was a celebration of a landmark project, the culmination of a two-year effort to design and construct a stunning 25 metre radar antenna that dominated the rolling Hampshire landscape for miles around. It was designed to support the research aspirations of the prestigious radio and space research station for decades to come. Today, the grand old dish stands sentinel on the horizon of the new LOFAR project.