Sky gazing
Visitors to the main OU campus in Milton Keynes will notice that the radio telescope (ARROW) is very busy repointing and tracking across the sky.
This is because we currently have around 200 students using the ARROW remotely, in online groups of four, as part of their study of SXPA288 Practical Science: Physics & Astronomy. They are busy mapping the structure of our Galaxy by ‘listening’ for the 1.4 GHz radio emissions from hydrogen atoms several tens of thousands of light years away.
Each night other SXPA288 students are using our remotely operable optical telescope, the PIRATE Facility in Mallorca, to acquire their own observations of star clusters.