LOFAR

The LOw Frequency ARray, LOFAR, is a radio telescope working at the lowest frequencies accessible from Earth. Combining many thousands of simple dipole receivers (just like the one in your radio at home) with the latest in high tech computing, LOFAR will be able to survey wide areas of the sky all at once and will open up a new window for astronomers.

When completed, LOFAR will consist of over 5,000 separate antennas spread in "stations" all over Europe. The main project is based in the Netherlands, and most of the array will be there, but outposts are planned in Germany, France, Sweden, Poland and the UK. Several stations are now working in the Netherlands, and a link-up to the first international station (in Efflesberg, Germany) has been successfully completed.

Locations of possible LOFAR stations:

LOFAR-UK

In the UK, LOFAR-UK is the largest astronomy collaboration in the country, involving scientists from 22 partner universities (Aberystwyth, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hertfordshire, Leicester, Liverpool John Moores, Kent, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Open University, Oxford, Portsmouth, QMUL, Sheffield, Southampton, Sussex, and UCL) as well as STFC/RAL and the UK ATC .

LOFAR-UK Statement on the STFC Science Prioritisation 2010-2015 (which recommended cutting all STFC funding for LOFAR).

LOFAR-Chilbolton

The first LOFAR "station" to be built in the UK will be based at the Chilbolton Observatory in Hampshire. The first parts were delivered this Autumn, with construction expected soon.

This is an aerial shot of the Chilbolton observatory showing how it looks now - the dish you see is the 25m radar. The LOFAR station will be located to the lower right of the image.

Website Header Images

Our header images rotate randomly through the below:

A slice though the aerial shot of the Chilbolton Observatory (as described above)

LBA Antennas at the first LOFAR station in the Netherlands (CS302)

The first light LOFAR image from 3 stations in the Netherlands

Prototype LBA antennas in a field.

High Resolution LOFAR Image of 3C61.1 (as discussed on our blog)