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| Interferometers - Credit Pascal Hilkens |
The date of september 9th was already marked for a long time. The radio astronomy station of Humain in Belgium will open its doors to the public for the first time. Together with my collegue Walter we left early in the morning to visit this once in a life time opportunity. The weather was perfect with a clear sky to walk along the two north-south and east-west axes of the old interferometer.
This radio astronomy station was founded in 1953 by the Royal Observatory of Belgium to house the very first Belgian radio telescopes dedicated to observing the Sun. In the 1960s, a solar interferometer of 44 radio telescopes was constructed and operated up until 2001. Today, the station continues to host radio and optical experiments to observe the sky, the Sun, the Earth’s space environment and its atmosphere.
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| Credit Pascal Hilkens |
After a quick snack we walked into a demo with the Solar Explorer or Sol'ex. This was a nice surprise as we didn't expect that the Royal Observatorium would own an amateur Sol'Ex instrument. This gave us the chance to ask in depth questions to Sabrina Bechet from the Royal Observatory. She gave some tips on the position of the instrument with the mount.
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| From Left to Right: Pascal, Sabrina Bechet (Royal Observatory) and Walter |
