Our Department of Physics is home to four telescopes domes that students can access as part of their studies to carry out a wide range of projects, from tracking near-earth asteroids to study of supernovae.
Our technical staff within the Physics Teaching & Research Laboratory Services team provide the vital support needed for the AstroLab module. This is a third-year advanced laboratory option for undergraduates which uses a variety of astronomy domes and telescopes situated on the roof of the Rochester Building to observe the dynamic nature of the universe.
What do the team do?
Managing this type of hi-tech equipment provides a great deal of variety, with each day presenting different opportunities to get involved with projects and students.
Across the projects, technical colleagues input into future development plans, planned preventative maintenance and the day to day (or night to night) running of our automated domes and telescopes including additional ancillary equipment such as weather stations and webcams.
Maintenance and development by the technical team keep the facility active and include:
- Daily operational checks on motors, contacts and drives.
- Regular flushing of the telescope tubes and CCD cameras with dry nitrogen to eliminate any moisture from the systems.
- Checking that UPS backup systems are functioning.
- Checking and repairs of data, signal and drive cables.
- Maintaining a stock and inventory of spares.
- Ensuring safe environments for all users.
- Design and building of new control circuits, power supplies and drive mechanisms.
- Programming of software to communicate with the appropriate hardware.
- Development of new installations to keep abreast with new technology and enhancing the student experience.
“In the Astrolab technical team the work is very varied, from simple day-to-day maintenance of the equipment, making improvements to the existing systems, to the installation of a completely new telescope system. There’s always something new to learn in many different areas such as electronics, optics, computer programming, automation, mechanical engineering, CAD design and 3D printing in addition to astronomy.” Dr Jason Anderson – Senior Technician – Physics TRLS team
This wide range of activities keeps things interesting, and it’s always exciting to see everything working together on the night’s sky.
We have four telescope domes, East-16 and West-14 are in the two above the Rochester building entrance then DRACO2 and Far-East-20 are located at the east end of the roof overlooking the Woodside Wing. These respectively house telescopes of sizes 16”, 14”, 14” and 20” and are of various types.
Learn more about Durham Physics Astrolab.