VDOD2020 - Workshop

You have landed in our Workshop

It takes many people with different skills to build instruments for space research. In our Workshop, our highly skilled technicians make things, put them together, modify them and make new things – for some of the world’s most ground-breaking instruments in astronomy

Workshop View

Have a look around our Workshop

360 View

The view will auto rotate. Use the pause button in the top corner to pause it. You can use your mouse to click and drag to move your view.

Ciaran at work on one of the machines in our Workshop

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Get a fisheye 360 view of one of our Workshop spaces

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See the machines at work

Meet some of our technicians

Lee is Lead Mechanical Technician

“I essentially take a lump of metal and turn it into something that astronomers will get science out of," says Lee

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Lee is helping to build a state-of-the-art instrument for the world’s largest and most productive optical telescope – the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile

What’s great about being a technician in the Workshop at UK ATC?

“You are always doing something new every day,” says Ciaran

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Ciaran has just completed his 4-year apprenticeship at UK ATC. He is now a full time member of the Workshop team

Family Friendly Activities

Make a Solar System Hat

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Watch for instructions to make a Solar System hat

Watch the video and print out the PDF files below to make your own Solar System hat

Solar System Hat Download [PDF/1.16 MB]

Workshop The Higgs Centre for Innovation Crawford Building Crawford Lab Copeland House Institute for Astronomy Rooftop Library The Visitor Centre