LOFAR station UK608

It is always interesting to see new LOFAR stations start to appear on the satellite photographs and Internet mapping sites. And one of the more recent additions is the LOFAR station in the United Kingdom. This is a particularly good site to look at, as there is a 25m dish nearby for comparison. It certainly gives a good idea of the scale of the LOFAR site!

This particular resolution photograph was probably taken in late 2011. We can tell this based on the materials around the LOFAR field itself and the state of the field. There are also cars parked near the gate to the main observatory compound, which would date from the time of the preparation of painting works for the 25m dish.

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The UK608 station was officially opened by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell on 20 September 2010. Its LOFAR designation is UK608. It is operated by the LOFAR-UK consortium, which is the largest astronomy collaboration in the United Kingdom, involving scientists from 24 institutes. LOFAR-UK also have a web log (http://blog.lofar-uk.org/) for their project.

References:

• Chilbolton Observatory on Bing Maps
• LOFAR-UK home page