Global Jet Watch is an exciting new project which links
astronomers at Oxford
University with schoolchildren around the world in order to carry out
cutting edge research.
Almost a billion billion miles from Earth lies a remarkable nano-quasar
called SS433. This exotic phenomenon fires
oppositely directed jets of hydrogen from near its central black hole at
speeds of over a quarter of the speed of light. These sweep out along an axis
every six months, producing a corkscrew pattern. Keeping a constant watch on
SS433 is impossible for a single observatory, so our sites are spread around
the world to keep the watch going.
Some areas of the website are still under construction, but for now you can
read about our project and find information
about our target, the cosmic corkscrew. Please
contact info@globaljetwatch.net
to register your interest and find out how you could be involved in this
exciting project.
| Sept. 8, 2009: Global Jet Watch South African Dome |
Details... |
Early in July, a team from Oxford travelled to Cape Town to install the Global Jet Watch observatory dome at the South African School. Despite the best efforts of the weather (Cape Town had its heaviest rain and worst flooding in 50 years during the first 2 days of the visit), the dome was successfully erected at the site. This was mostly thanks to the incredible level of help we were given by the school's maintenance team.
Below you can see a number of photographs of the installation process ably assisted by the school's maintenance staff, and get an idea of how bad the weather was!
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| July 1, 2009: Global Jet Watch First Light |
Details... |
We are very proud to announce that the Australian Global Jet Watch telescope has achieved First Light after final calibrations and testing during the recent installation visit. This is a doubly important event as it marks First Light for the project as a whole as the Australian telescope is the first of the 4 telescopes to be installed and commissioned. Using an SBIG STL-4020 science grade imaging camera on the back of the RC Optical telescope we have been able to obtain images of well-known astronomical objects during the first few nights of observing. We look forward to many more stunning images such as these as well as the commencement of science observations of SS433 with the Australian telescope in the coming weeks.
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| June 11, 2009: Commissioning of the first Global Jet Watch telescope |
Details... |
We are delighted that the installation and testing of the first of the Global Jet Watch network of telescopes is underway. This telescope, manufactured by RC Optical in Arizona, is being commissioned at our Australia school. The picture shows the telescope inside its dome, with protective card and packing still in place for the installation process.
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