After all the many entries and a tough decision from the international judging panel in our Name the Big Dish competition, it was finally time to activate the Big Dish CORY!

Rebecca Cantwell, 13, from Regina Mundi College in Douglas, Cork, who suggested C.O.R.Y. “Computer Operated Radio Yoke”, was the guest of honour at the activation ceremony at the National Space Centre in Elfordstown, Midleton.

Credit: Ger McCarthy

At 6.30pm, Rebecca, with help from NASA astronaut Greg Johnson’s countdown, activated and lit up the Big Dish C.O.R.Y. and it officially begin receiving visual and audio signals from Space. The dish is now the largest radio dish available for educational purposes in Europe!

The Signals from Space webpage is now live and over the coming weeks, new ways of showing the signals will be added. You can listen to the signals and see how they change with time on a graph.

Soon you will be able to listen to how musicians convert the signals into fun electronic sounds and see how web designers convert them into exciting visual displays!

Congratulations again to Rebecca and thanks to Greg Johnson and all at the National Space Centre.