P R E S S  R E L E A S E

————————————————————

Astronomers from Jodrell Bank and Cardiff University today revealed a new way for members of the public to explore the galaxy. Their online tool, Chromoscope, allows anyone to view the Milky Way and the distant Universe more easily than ever before. The site shows the sky in a range of wavelengths, from high-energy gamma rays through to the longest radio waves.

Project member Robert Simpson, from Cardiff, said “Chromoscope sheds new light on familiar objects, such as the Orion nebula, our closest stellar nursery. This view of the Universe has been familiar to professional astronomers for a long while, but Chromoscope makes it accessible to everyone.”

The Chromoscope site is being launched at the dotAstronomy conference in Leiden, Netherlands. dotAstronomy is the world’s largest annual conference dedicated to work which combines cutting-edge astronomy with the latest on the web technology.

Lead developer, Stuart Lowe, from the University of Manchester, remarked that Chromoscope is a collaborative project. “Chromoscope uses data from a range of observatories, including the giant radio telescope at Jodrell Bank”, he said, “this allows people to see the connections between the night sky we see with our own eyes and the sky that astronomers explore in different wavelengths, such as radio and the infrared.”

Collaborator, Chris North from Cardiff University – also a researcher on BBC’s long-running Sky at Night programme – commented “We wanted to create something that was accessible to not only the general public, but also schools. Chromoscope can be downloaded and then used without an internet connection – or placed on a USB memory stick and passed around”.

The project involves data from ROSAT (X-ray), the Digital Sky Survey (optical), IRAS (infrared), WMAP (microwave) and other all-sky astronomical surveys. There are more wavelengths lined up and ready to go in the near future. It will be available at http://www.chromoscope.net from Thursday morning.

E N D  O F  P R E S S  R E L E A S E
—————————————————————————————————

Contact:

Stuart Lowe
E-mail: slowe@jb.man.ac.uk

Robert Simpson
Tel: +44 (0)7929 508961
E-mail: robert.simpson@astro.cf.ac.uk

Chris North
Tel: +44 (0)7815 115636
E-Mail: chris.north@astro.cf.ac.uk

.Astronomy 2009 is an event of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

.Astronomy 2009 is supported by the Lorentz Center, NWO, ASTRON, the European programme RadioNet, the British Council/Platform Beta Techniek’s Partnership in Science programme and the Royal Astronomical Society.

Links:
http://www.chromoscope.net/
Twitter: @chromoscope
Blog: http://blog.chromoscope.net/

Related posts:

1. Press Release: .Astronomy P R E S S   R E L...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

P R E S S   R E L E A S E
————————————————————-

.Astronomy 2009: Workshop on Astronomy and the New Media

Next week, from 30 November to 4 December, an unconventional workshop takes place in Leiden, The Netherlands, to discuss novel concepts of thinking and working in astronomy today. Participants of the .Astronomy conference (read: dot astronomy) will explore new ways of exploiting the data deluge that will be produced by upcoming surveys and instruments for the benefit of their science and of society as a whole. Novel ways of communicating science to a wide audience have burst onto the scene in recent years: the web 2.0, blogs, podcasts and social networking.

Google Sky and Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope have brought astronomy into the home with stunning elegance. No science is better suited to engaging the general public in real scientific research and discovery than astronomy. Examples of this are the hugely popular Galaxy Zoo project, or the increasing number of robotic telescopes made available to citizen scientists for scientific and educational purposes. Online communication and network-based technologies are changing the face of science, for professional astronomers as well as for the general public.

In 2008 the first .Astronomy conference took place in Cardiff. The second edition is taking place at the Lorentz Center of Leiden University. Some of the themes covered during the meeting are citizen science projects, new media for outreach and communication, network-based research tools and data visualisation. One day of the meeting is a dedicated ‘Astronomy Hack Day’ where the topics above will be explored in a hands-on way. Developers will brainstorm about new ideas and applications. One of the objectives of the meeting is to come up with a new citizen science project, where the general public is invited to be directly involved in producing new scientific results. The morning talks of the .Astronomy workshop will be streamed online.

E N D   O F   P R E S S   R E L E A S E
—————————————————————————————————

Contact:

Dr. Carolina Ödman
Tel: +31 (0)71 527 58 16     Mob:  +31 (0)6 41 275 298
E-mail: odman@strw.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. Sarah Kendrew
Tel: +31 (0)71 527 84 56
E-mail: kendrew@strw.leidenuniv.nl

Robert Simpson
Tel: +44 (0)7929 508961
E-mail: robert.simpson@astro.cf.ac.uk

.Astronomy 2009 is an event of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

.Astronomy 2009 is supported by the Lorentz Center, NWO, ASTRON, the European programme RadioNet, the British Council/Platform Beta Techniek’s Partnership in Science programme and the Royal Astronomical Society.

Links:
http://www.dotastronomy.com/
http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/
Twitter: @dotastronomy
Blog: http://www.dotastronomy.com/

Original press release on www.astronomie.nl/
—————————————————————————————————

Related posts:

1. Press Release: Chromoscope F O R   I M M E D I...
2. LEGO in the Age of Aquarius Rob Seaman is open to the idea of bribery. To...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.