Team SKA at Bluedot 2019

Armed with their "Science is for everyone" t-shirts, SKA HQ volunteers were ready to have fun at Bluedot 2019!

Credit: SKAO

It may have been a soggy weekend of classic British summer weather, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the tens of thousands of people who flocked to the annual Bluedot Festival from 18-21 July.

Hosted at Jodrell Bank Observatory, which was recently inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the festival offered an inspiring mix of science, music and culture. Team SKA’s stand in the Star Field, situated between SKA Global Headquarters and the iconic Lovell Telescope, provided an opportunity to engage with festival-goers young and old. In the shadow of the SKA inflatable dish, towering 8m above the stand, visitors were encouraged to create pictures of the Universe inspired by the SKA’s Shared Sky artworks, learning techniques used by indigenous artists from the two SKA sites in Australia and South Africa. Younger visitors tried their hand at navigating through the Universe, learning about SKA science along the way, with the aid of Bee-Bot programmable robots. Clad in SKA’s brand new “Science is for Everyone” T-shirts, staff and students from the SKA Organisation and the University of Manchester were on hand to explain the science and technology involved in building the world’s largest radio telescope. Away from the Star Field and in the midst of Bluedot’s musical and cultural attractions, SKA scientists and engineers enthralled festival-goers as part of a wide ranging talks programme, covering star formation, the science and engineering demands of the SKA, and its potential to impact society beyond science.

by Joe Diamond (SKAO) and Dr Hilary Kay (University of Manchester)