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.
| Nov. 12, 2011: First Light in South Africa |
Details... |
With great pleasure we announce first light at our South Africa telescope!
We visited South Africa in August and September 2011, and are pleased to report a constructive few weeks spent at the site. We have finalised the electronics, which power the various instruments and the dome itself, and have installed a new focusing control unit. This new unit is an RC Optical Telescope Interface Manager (TIM), which you can see in the picture below.
We would like to thank the South African school for their warm welcome and hospitality. We especially enjoyed the parents' evening, and the incredible enthusiasm of the whole community.
We anticipate the first science observations from our South African telescope once the weather clears. Although spectacular, we look forward to fewer rainbows and more cloudless nights!
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| March 24, 2011: Global Jet Watch Indian First Light |
Details... |
We are very glad to announce that first light has also been obtained with our telescope in India. A combined team formed by Oxford and Raman Institute's scientists carried out the basic calibration steps and telescope commissioning procedures during mid-February 2011.
We are very grateful to the Raman Research Institute for their hospitality and for providing us with key resources and superb assistance to finish the installation of the telescope and its equipment. Our telescope in India is now equipped with a state-of-the-art ST 8300 CCD imaging camera complemented with an off-axis auto-guiding system and a filter wheel that offers seven science quality narrow and broad band filters. In the coming weeks, science data will start streaming from India directly to the headquarters in Oxford, to be carefully processed and thoroughly analysed along with the data streams from our other telescopes. One of the many exciting things about the Indian telescope is that its location is such that it is the only telescope in the Global Jet Watch project network able to observe fully the northern hemisphere, as well as deep into the southern hemisphere.
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| March 24, 2011: Global Jet Watch Chile Telescope Commissioning and First Light |
Details... |
We are very happy to present the images you can see below this text. The Chilean Global Jet Watch project school saw its first light in January 2011 after meticulous calibration and testing of the recently commissioned telescope and its newly-installed instrumentation. This is the second "first light" event. The first image corresponds to a full-colour snapshot of the majestic Moon, showing a large number of craters and oceans that can be appreciated in great detail. The second is a splendid view of the planet Saturn and its rings. We are looking forward to many more stunning images such as these as well as the commencement of science observations of SS433 and other important targets with the Chilean telescope in parallel with the other telescopes in our network. In the next few weeks a new CCD imaging camera, equipped with seven science-grade filters and an off-axis autoguider, will be installed at the telescope, allowing for much more detailed and deeper images of the cosmos.
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