Student Excellence

Radio Telescope Program

As part of Science Week, August 2022, our Mornington Secondary College students have the opportunity to take part in the Radio Telescope Program offered by the Victorian Space Science Education Centre as part of the Challenge and Enrichment Series in Victoria, Australia .

Our school is booked for 2 sessions on Friday 12th August, 1pm-3pm and a future events to be confirmed on August 22nd 2022 1-3pm and later in the term. 

Students will have the chance to learn more about radio astronomy through coursework on moodle and to observe firsthand how to remotely control a radio telescope.  In these sessions, students will see how to access the telescope and how to set up the instruments to be able to observe and detect objects in space by moving the telescope to search for objects like supernovas and evidence of hydrogen in the universe.  Once we remotely choose locations for the telescope to observe, we will be able to map an area of space to see the radio signals to understand more about what is out there. Sometimes, students will be the first people to actively map objects and we will be able to observe previously mapped objects in space to see what these maps look like.

We had our first session today to learn how to use the Radio Astronomy Pro and Team viewer software and already the students have unparked a real telescope, selected an object, and tracked it to start mapping it. The students had to adjust the settings of the telescope to improve the map and have been able to view the real telescope move as they have instructed it.

Rebecca Stroud 

High Ability Practice Leader