General Information
(Last updated: 2004.02.12)
| Equatorial component at λ = 0° | x | 3638558.51 m | |
| Equatorial component at λ = 90°E | y | 1221969.72 m | |
| Polar component | z | 5077036.76 m | |
| Equatorial component: √{x2+y2} | r | 3838270.19 m | |
| Length of radius vector: √{x2+y2+z2} | R | 6364638.27 m | |
| Height above the ellipsoid | h | 133.61 m | |
| Geographical longitude: arctan2(y,x) | λ | 18.56406° = | 18°33'50.6" |
| Geodetic latitude | φ | 53.09546° = | 53°05'43.7" |
| Geocentric latitude: arctan(z/r) | φ' | 52.91050° = | 52°54'37.8" |
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Department of Radio Astronomy Nicolaus Copernicus University Piwnice 87-148 Łysomice, Poland | or |
Department of Radio Astronomy Nicolaus Copernicus University ul. Gagarina 11 87-100 Toruń, Poland |
| Tel.: (0-56) 61130NR | Fax: (0-56) 6113009 | Telex: 0552412 umk pl |
E-mail Addresses:
User_name@astro.uni.torun.pl
WWW home page
| The table of private telephone numbers has been removed from this electronic version |
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Milestones in the history of Torun radio astronomy
| 1958.02.06 | First observations of an active Sun were registered at the frequency (ν) of 127 MHz with an antenna having a reflector in the form of a paraboloidal cylinder |
| 1958.10.29 | First observations of a quiet Sun with a paraboloidal dish (d = 12 m; ν = 127 MHz). This date marks the beginning of regular solar patrol observations |
| 1960.08 | Beginning of partol observations of the Sun with an interferometer |
| 1961.05-06 | Observations of the Tau A occulted by the solar corona (ν = 32,5 MHz; three antenna interferometer, 1400 m wide) |
| 1965.05 | Group of Radio Astronomy established within the Chair of Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy |
| 1973.04.19 | Launch of a radio spectrograph on board the ,,Interkosmos-Kopernik 500" satellite |
| 1973.09 | A building for the Group of Radio Astronomy completed |
| 1976.10 | Construction (started in the Spring of 1976) of the 15 m diameter parabolic radio telescope completed |
| 1978.09 | First test observations with the 15 m radio telescope |
| 1980.01.01 | Chair of Radio Astronomy established |
| 1981.06.29 | First successful observations with the VLBI technique (MkIIc terminal) |
| 1983 | Initial proposal of the 32 m paraboloidal antenna for VLBI |
| 1986-88 | Completion of initial and final design of the 32 m antenna, and start of construction works |
| 1991.10.16 | Erection of the 32 m antenna begun |
| 1994.10.22 | Construction of the 32 m antenna completed |
| 1995.04. | First transit observations with the new antenna at 5 GHz |
| 1995.09.14 | First tracking with the new antenna |
| 1996.04.17 | First successful VLBI experiment with the new antenna and the Penny+Giles (MkIII) terminal |
| 1996.06-07 | First observations of pulsars and spectral observations |
The parabolic cylinder was the first radio astronomical instrument built in the observatory. It allowed to record radio emission of the active Sun on February 6, 1958, unfortunately only a month later it collapsed under the weight of icing. The enthusiastic radio astronomers of those years have built a new telescope yet in the same year. This time it was a stearable paraboloid of revolution, 12 m in diameter. It was employed for solar observations at 127 MHz since September 1958. So initiated observations at this wavelength (2,36 m) were later continued for many years in a routine manner, although other antennas were used at different periods of time (see e.g. Gawrońska et al., 1994). In October 1960 a low-resolution interferometer consisting of a pair of cylindrical antennas separated by 10 λ (23,6 m) took over the solar monitoring. In 1972 these antennas were replaced by antennas of standard gain with a simpler, flat reflector. The observations at 127 MHz on 15 February 1961 were supplemented with similar interferometric (baseline 10 λ) observations at 327 MHz.
Another fruitful program led by the Torun radio astronomers concerned occultations of a few radio sources during their apparent passage behind the solar corona. For the purpose a three antenna interferometer has been built with the longest baseline equal to 1400 m, that operated at 32.5 MHz since May 1961.
Later, the astronomers have built also a broad-band (100 – 150 MHz) interferometer for research of active centers on the face of the Sun, a solar spectrograph for the range 25 – 200 MHz with a log-periodic antenna, and a system for circumpolar aperture synthesis at 43 MHz.
In these early years the University astronomers closely cooperated with scientists of the Polish Academy of Sciences. This friendly collaboration in addition to the above mentioned endevours resulted also in scientific equipment (0.6 – 6 MHz spectrograph) for Kopernik 500 sputnik (launched on April 19, 1973), proposal and co-ordination of project for 15 m radio telescope (completed in 1977), and a small stearable parabolic telescope for solar observations at 2,8 GHz.
Of the above mentioned old radio astronomical instrumentation only the 127 MHz solar interferometer is used till this day. It is situated, as in the beginning, on the precincts of the optical observatory. There one can still see skeleton of the 12 m paraboloid and remnants of the 327 MHz interferometer.
The 15 m telescope, dedicated primarily to VLBI in cooperation with western observatories, has been occasionally used for other observations. Noteworthy is a project of monitoring of a few strong pulsars, which however was too time-consuming and consequently has been suspended.
Once the 15 m telescope became available for observations, it opened chances for Polish radio astronomers to join the team of a few world leading institutions using the most advanced technique of VLBI. The barriers to overcome at this stage were the terminal (Mark II then), which had to be built in the observatory, and a purchase of a rubidium frequency standard required by the technique. A documentation received from England, upon agreement with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (Green Bank, USA), allowed the terminal to be successfully assembled and tested solely by the staff of the TRAO. In 1981 the first interference fringes were obtained with the Bonn correlator from observations carried out on Torun-Effelsberg (FRG) baseline (the Westerbork station in the Netherlands also participated in this test experiment).
Soon, the Torun station used to take part in practically all European, and from time to time in intercontinental, VLBI observations on a regular basis. Typically it was four 7- to 14-day sessions a year.
On August 10, 1982, three stations, Westerbork, Jodrell Bank (Great Britain) and Torun, observed for the first time in Europe at the wavelength of 49 cm (until then there were not enough stations equipped with these receivers). After correlation in Bonn, the first map (of the 3C286 radio source) has been generated in Torun. Of the many observations, in which the Torun station participated, worth mentioning is the one called 'world radio array' — a global experiment performed in April 1984 at the wavelength of 18 cm, in which 18 stations participated (which means as many as 153 baselines) — the largest number of stations to date. Tha California-Torun baseline was one of the longest in the network.
The equipment of the 15 m radio telescope essential for the VLBI observations comprised of: rubidium frequency standard, frequency synthesizers (which produced local oscillator signals), digital clock (plus a system of time synchronization based on the TV method), Mark II terminal (video converter, formatter and cassette video recorder) and a set of receivers for standard VLBI bands: 408, 610, 1420, 1660 and 5000 MHz. Considerable part of these devices has been built wholly at the TRAO.