Discover the invisible Universe through technology & science
- Reference number
- IAb08-0018
- Start and end dates
- 090101-091231
- Amount granted
- 200 000 SEK
- Administrative organization
- Chalmers University of Technology
- Research area
- Other
Summary
As part of a national program within the framework of the International Year of Astronomy in 2009 (IYA2009), we shall make modern astronomical instruments available for observations at a distance through internet for high-school ("gymnasie") students. A first application was submitted earlier this year on behalf of the Swedish Committee for IYA2009 by Prof. Bengt Gustafsson, Chairman of the Committee, and was successfully reviewed. The proposal dealt with making a robotic telescope at the Tycho Brahe Observatory in Malmö accessible to high-school students; it also included a plan for an itinerant astronomy exhibition. The present application is complementary to the first one, as we are proposing to offer high-school students and teachers internet access to a suite of small radio telescopes built at Onsala Space Observatory, as a way to gain insight into part of the universe that is not observable otherwise. Radio observations can also serve as an introduction to a number of techniques involving antennae, micro-wave receivers, signal processing, etc. We aim at bringing real-time radio astronomical observations to more than 100 classrooms in Sweden during 2009. We will assure an important engagement at key events, especially during the "100 hours of astronomy" on April 2-5, 2009, and during the International Science Festival in Göteborg in May, and make the radio telescopes available on a regular basis during the rest of 2009 and after.