PULSE@Parkes, is an innovative CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science program that gives high school students the opportunity to control the famous 64m Parkes radio telescope, “The Dish” remotely in real time to observe pulsars. These rapidly spinning super dense remnants of massive stars are some of the most extreme objects in the Universe. In a session students learn about radio astronomy, interact with professional astronomers and university science students, control a major telescope then analyse their data.
In this session we’ll demonstrate the setup for PULSE@Parkes, discuss the systems involved then let participants control the Dish to observe a variety of pulsars. We will demonstrate the online data feeds and the student module then discuss future possibilities and planned developments for the program.