Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Doors open at 7.00pm, presentation starts at 7:30pm

TableTop Radio Astronomy – Demonstrating How Astronomers See the Invisible with Radio Interferometers
Dr Charles Barton, Department of Physics, The University of York

Astronomers have a vast toolkit of equipment and techniques to learn about our Solar System, Galaxy, and Universe. The visible universe have given us insight into many things, but most matter is the is not visible to telescopes here on Earth or to instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope. Radio Astronomy lets us see things never observed before, like the dust clouds in the Spiral Arm of our Galaxy, matter near the Supermassive Black Hole at the centre of the Milky Way, the expanding bubbles from the explosive death of stars, astronomical lasers in stellar nurseries, and some of the most distant objects in the universe – Quasars. But radio astronomy is complicated by keeping track of more information than optical astronomy and is handicapped by receiving radio waves, which limits the detail or size of the object that can be “seen”. The TableTop Radio Astronomy kit will demonstrate the powerful tool of radio astronomy and interferometry as we “observe” compact fluorescent lightbulbs which, to our radio telescope, look like 5000 degree hot stars. We will discuss how a radio telescope works and what can be seen with this kit and current and future radio instruments.

Dr Charles Barton is a Lecturer in the Department of Physics at The University of York. His research interest is in experimental nuclear physics with experiments being carried out in a number of facilities around the world. The Nuclear Physics Group have a key interest in public outreach and Charles has been particularly instrumental in the concept and design of the University’s newest outreach facility – the University of York’s Astrocampus, which aims to bring the excitement of astronomy and astrophysics to children and to the general public. More Information about Charles and his research can be found at: http://www-users.york.ac.uk/~cjb18/Charles_Barton_-_Department_of_Physics/Welcome.html