A group of 35 ICD colleagues and their family members were warmly welcomed by the expert guides of the Drentse Landschap who are members of the LOFARTafel foundation. These are guides who can tell you all about the beautiful nature as well as the high-tech systems of LOFAR.

So where does the hightech come in? It is in the subsequent steps. All radio waves are converted into signals in the corresponding computer cabinets and tuned to exact (atomic clock) times, because the different types of antennas are located at different distances from this centre. This exact 'tuning' creates a full picture of (a part of) the universe. Because the location is in the open field, observations can be made almost to horizon level. The quantities of data are also staggering. Extra radiation from telephones, passing cars and other objects, such as windmills, can disturb the observations and are therefore excluded as much as possible.

The collected observations are sent to the computer centre on the RUG's Zernike Campus. From that moment on, astronomers all over the world can freely access ASTRON's data to do their specialist research. As the data are held at the Superterp for about 5-7 seconds, a kind of sky-photo can be taken (to be determined remotely) when astronomically interesting phenomena occur. Meanwhile, the LOFAR system is also used for research into meteorological phenomena, such as lightning.