Where On Google Earth?

Believe it or not, but you are looking here at the core of the largest radio telescope in the world, the LOFAR telescope in the North Eastern part of the Netherlands.

The LOw Frequency ARray is a multi purpose set of sensors, suitable for astronomical observations, but also for geophysical and agricultural applications. The antennas are located in a wide area in Northern Europe and ‘talking’ to each other by means of a fast glass fibres connection network.

When LOFAR is fully completed there will be an array of 7000 antennas in clusters with a diameter of 100 km and spread out over an area of 1500 km across Europe.

LOFAR will be officially opened on june 12th by HM Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.

Kudos to Milosh, Serbia and David Kozina for finding this location.

This is the large tar sand mining operation in Alberta, Canada, run by the Syncrude company.

Basically what is happening here is that crude oil is reclaimed from the bituminous sand that is at lying the surface of the earth. This location is supposed to be the largest tar sand reservoir in the world with an estimated 170 billion barrels of crude oil.

These operations are heavily criticised because of the environmental impact as of toxic waste and CO2 emissions.

Right answers this week from:

• ACG
• Sarah G
• Milosh, Serbia
• Steve Jaycocks
• Andy M, USA
• David Kozina
• hhgygy
• Paul Franson
• Taliesin

Here is a real challenge for the diehards amongst you

When searching for locations suitable for my last ‘theme’, I came across this location. But of course I rejected it as being too hard. But it might be fun to see if someone manages to find it. The clue is already given.

We end this series (and the theme) were it all begun: The observatory of Tycho Brahe on the island of Hven in Denmark. Uranienborg was the first academic research centre for astronomics and constructed in 1576.

A few years later he built an underground observatory at the same location, (visible at the south-side of the road) called Stjerneborg.

Today the Stjerneborg observatory is restored and can be visited.

Those who witnessed the supernova:

• hhgygy
• David Kozina
• Paul Franson
• Ivar Bonsaksen
• Sarah G.
• BroderUlf
• brian t
• Max_Power

Congratulations to hhgygy, who managed to score full marks this round.

It is hard to believe, is Milosh finally beaten?

The Paranal Observatory is an ESO facility, located at the 2635 m high Cerro Paranal, Chile. The main observatory is the Very  Large Telescope, a cluster of four optical telescopes with a 8.2m mirror and four smaller Auxiliary Telescopes. Together they can act as a very sensitive interferometer.

The Atacama Desert is believed to be the driest place on earth which makes it a very suitable place for an optical telescope.

Those looking down on others who are looking up:

• Milosh, Serbia
• Pascal Gilbraith
• Willem
• hhgygy
• Paul Franson
• Dennis S.
• lardarz
• Ivar Bonsaksen
• rsimmon
• Lori Simpson
• Steve Jaycocks
• Andy McConnell
• Camargo, California
• ACG
• David Kozina
• brian t
• Andy M, USA
• Aaron Predeek
• Taliesin
• Max_Power
• Sarah G

The Jodrell Bank Observatory was established in 1939 and is part of the University of Manchester in the UK.

The main telescope at this site is the Lovell Telescope and is among the largest steerable radio telescopes in the world.

It was constructed in 1955 and has a diameter of 76.2 m (250 ft). Is was upgraded in 2002 and still plays a major role in new discoveries.

Those who steerded to the right direction:

• brian t
• hhgygy
• Steve Jaycocks
• Willem
• Pascal Gilbraith
• Paul Franson
• David Kozina
• ACG
• Milosh, Serbia
• Andy McConnell
• lardarz
• Andy Murdock
• Tim Craig
• Andy M, USA
• Camargo, California
• Ivar Bonsaksen
• Exsanguinator
• Graham Foxall
• Max_Power
• Jan_Vergouwe
• Dennis S.
• Aaron Predeek
• ewen
• Taliesin