Ken Tapping, September 15 2010

Our observatory is currently a very busy place. As the final days click away, everyone is working to make sure everything is up, running and ready for our Annual Big Event, the 2010 Open House, which this year is also a celebration of our observatory’s 50th Birthday. The Big Event will be on Saturday, September 25, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., admission is free. As usual, all are welcome.

These Open Houses are the main community events in DRAO’s timetable. However, they are not the only outreach activities held each year by our institute, the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, or our parent agency, the National Research Council of Canada. Outreach is very important for us and for the community. That’s why we give talks, write articles, welcome public enquiries and questions, and hold Open Houses. Since NRC has branches and facilities across Canada, we have an excellent opportunity to make contact and report on what we are up to.

At our Open House, through talks, demonstrations, tours and conversations, we’ll discuss different facets of astronomy. Firstly what’s new? What are the big issues? What have NRC and our institute achieved? What are we doing at DRAO? What are the benefits outside astronomy?

We cannot do much new astronomy without new tools. Each year brings new breakthroughs in instrumentation, techniques and re-examination of things we thought we knew. Our new signal processing system, WIDAR, is now coming into operation on the Enhanced Very Large Array radio telescope. The team-up of US radio telescope technology and Canadian signal processing and number crunching should keep Canadian and American astronomers busy for years.

Then there is our participation with other nations to build the biggest and most sensitive radio telescope ever. This will only be possible if we can develop a cheap way to make high quality, high accuracy antennas. A prototype dish for that system is running here at DRAO, together with a special antenna for use on the dish. Our innovation here is to reduce the cost of the antenna without compromising quality by using inexpensive composite materials rather than metal. This provides a lighter antenna with potential uses in communications, radar and other fields.

In addition to our contributions to Canada’s international partnerships, new instruments are being planned for DRAO. One, being built under a partnership with Natural Resources Canada and the Canadian Space Agency, will be used for monitoring of the Sun’s behaviour.

Many of the new technologies being developed for astronomy have other applications, just as astronomical imaging techniques are used in medicine. So we have partnerships with industry to best exploit this potential of these innovations.

Finally, if you are interested in a career in science and technology, drop in on the 25th, have a look around, talk to scientists and engineers.