On October 23 and 24, Mitaka Open House Day was held at the NAOJ Mitaka Campus. The NAOJ Chile Observatory gave presentations of ALMA, including mini-lectures by three researchers, Bunyo Hatsukade, Misato Fukagawa, and Fumi Egusa, all of which attracted many people to a full audience. They talked to the audience about their research and how excited they were when they saw incredibly high-quality images obtained from ALMA observations.
- Mini-lecture given by Bunyo Hatsukade (Project assistant professor at the NAOJ Chile Observatory)
- The lobby was furnished with new vertical hanging banners from the ceiling to welcome visitors. Left and right banners are ALMA observation images: left one shows a dust disk around HL Tau; and right one shows the Antennae Galaxies composite image of ALMA and optical observations.
- Outside the building, visitors took part in “satellite reception experiment with a round-bottomed pan”. They used a pan as a parabolic satellite antenna. Some skilled participants could catch the satellite frequencies with the lid of the pan.
- Right side of the 1/20 miniature model of the Japanese 7-m antenna, there was a skeleton model of the Band 10 receiver. Engineers engaged in the receiver development explained the receiver function in detail using the model.
Since it was a sunny Saturday, we had a large number of visitors. Mitaka Open House Day is a good opportunity to get information about ALMA and the universe observed with ALMA directly from researchers and engineers working active in the front line.
