Wednesday, August 17th at 11am @ the JAC

ABSTRACT: The Astronomical Institute ASTRON in Dwingeloo, The Netherlands, has been building and developing measuring instruments for astronomical research for over 50 years, including the Westerbork Radio Telescope. After a complete renewal in 2002, it is once again one of the most sensitive telescopes on Earth. However, it can only study galaxies in the local universe. To study high-z objects a telescope would have to be 100 times more sensitive. For this purpose, at ASTRON astronomers and technicians are involved in developing LOFAR. With a modern design that utilizes the latest technologies and aimed at forcing a breakthrough in sensitivity for astronomical observations at radio-frequencies below 250 MHZ, LOFAR will open up new ways to do innovative, in-depth research. When completed, the telescope will consist of about 25000 simple antennas spread over an area of 350 km in diameter, covering the Netherlands and parts of Germany.

In my talk I will describe the LOFAR system and will show some preliminary results of a test field with 100 LOFAR antennas on it.