Welcome to the KCL telescope
The purpose of the bid is to install a telescope in a pre-existing dome on the roof of the King’s building which will not only lead to new inter-disciplinary teaching opportunities and student projects but also new research-learning links for physicists and an entirely new means of engaging with the community. The stars and the cosmos have the ability to enthuse and inspire students of all disciplines in a uniquely powerful way. The installation of a telescope will enable us to observe everything from planets in our Solar System to distant galaxies. This will create new opportunities for innovative teaching methodology, cross disciplinary communication within the college and new forms of outreach. We teach our undergraduates experimental skills in our teaching laboratories but astronomical observation is very different as we have no possibility of manipulating the object being studied. It is very important to understand clearly how we learn about the Universe by collecting photons with telescopes. Only by doing so directly are students able to understand the issues and the uncertainties associated with that data and the many conclusions based upon that data in a fully critical manner.
Having a telescope would revolutionise our students understanding of how we have learnt about our place in the Cosmos, and how future understanding of space will be enabled and constrained by the equipment used to obtain data. The equipment we are applying for will also allow for an entirely new and innovative program of observational astronomy teaching. It will be possible to control the telescope from within lecture theatres, allowing us to extend the experience of observing the cosmos to other members of the College, visitors to the college and to groups and interested parties anywhere in the world, including our partner universities and potentially as an element of e-learning.
Malcolm Fairbairn
Meet Edoardo Paluan: The student behind "LUXEXSTELLIS" and intern working at the KCL telescope
Well hello! I am Edoardo Paluan, blogger and founder of Lux Ex Stellis. My limitations in Latin are many and what I originally wanted to be Light and Stars (Lux Et Stellis) became Lux Ex Stellis, namely; light from the stars. I decided to stick with the mistake because it sounded better and because we are all like light descendants of the stars, in essence; stardust. If that brought tears to your eyes then I'm satisfied, if it did not, then keep reading.
So what made me write this blog? After all, trust me, and if you are a student you don't need me to tell you this; there are better things to do around.. Well, one of the films which will forever be in my reccomendation list is Bladerunner, directed by Ridley Scott, and for the fans I cannot help but quote Roy Batty the replicant;
"I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost in time, like [small cough] tears... in... rain. Time... to die..."
I can safely say we have not seen ships on fire off of Orion or c-beams, nor do we plan to die any time soon, but none of us would have allowed memories to be lost like tears in the rain, especially because it rains quite a lot in London. So here we are blogging.
Other facts about me include being a third year Physics student at KCL with a particular interest in astrophysics and nanotechnology. I have a passion for Italian art and Culture (being Italian helps) and I am a keen sailor and judoka.
Meet Malcolm Fairbairn The man behind the KCL telescope
Hello, my name is Malcolm Fairbairn and I am reader in physics at King’s College London. My research lies at the interface between particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology.
In particular I spend my time worrying about the nature of dark matter and dark energy and how we can make links between what is happening at the LHC and in the early Universe. I am a theorist, which means I don’t do experiments or use telescopes, I make calculations using pencil and paper and also by writing computer programs.
I also teach undergraduates. This blog is about a telescope we are going to build on the roof of the physics department here at KCL. We are right in the middle of London, here (look for the little dome next to where it says “dept of electrical and electronic engineering”) so it’s going to be interesting. Why is it going to be interesting? Well because people usually build telescopes in dark places like here! However, our telescope is not for research but for teaching.
Meet Sunayana Bhargava, the awkwardly poetic intern
I arrived a little late to this project, and so, somewhat fortunately, bypassed the heavy lifting of telescope components and instead dealt with much lighter equipment such as breadboards and wiring.
I have mainly been working on automation mechanisms for the telescope and dome, such as controlling the telescope remotely via a PC, and synchronising the hatch with the telescope at all times. The equipment I have been using to achieve this includes an Arduino microcontroller, infrared LED proxinity sensors, relay boxes and dome rotation motors. Whilst programming with the Arduino, I have also thrown myself in the deep end a little by learning C++ with very little prior experience, though it's been very enjoyable and rewarding when a code I've inputted in a language I barely understand actually works!
If all continues to go to plan, we should hopefully have a situation where the telescope and dome are able to move smoothy in conjuction with each other, thereby allowing for uninterrupted slewing to any star/body within our hemisphere, as well as accurate tracking of an object over time. Though the images we have collected so far have notified us that the telescope is still its in prelimiary stages (low resolution pictures of Saturn are still pretty awesome, though), we are aiming to have a properly balanced telescope along with digital focusers to ensure image quality is as good as possible.
