Excursion to radiotelescope Effelsberg
On July 3, the team of researchers and student interns from the Astro/-Particle Physics department at the University of Wuppertal went on an excursion to the Effelsberg radio telescope. Built in 1972, the radio telescope with a diameter of 100 m is still one of the two largest fully mobile radio telescopes today.
The radio telescope can be operated at a speed of 32° per minute in azimuth and 16° per minute in zenith, whereby it can point to stellar configurations with an accuracy of up to 10 arc seconds (10/3600°) in order to measure them in a frequency range from 300 MHz to 95 GHz.
The tour, organized by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, began with an introductory lecture explaining the possibilities of radio astronomy. It was explained to the participants that a radio telescope like the one in Effelsberg can not only be used to determine the chemical composition of colliding star systems or the properties of pulsars, but can even measure the movements of the Earth's tectonic plates and the amount of space debris.
The tour then led the enthusiastic audience down into the valley to the impressive white radio telescope dish. Also to be found in the valley was part of the LOFAR radio array, which as a radio interferometer forms "part of the future of radio astronomy". The tour led past the gigantic base of the telescope and into the control center, where the exact procedures and measurement processes were explained in detail.
Many questions and lively discussions in front of the monumental facility in the service of radio science made this excursion a great experience for all participants.
