Bringing low-cost radio astronomy to Ukraine with the TTRT

The TTRT is a simple yet capable telescope originally developed at the SKAO as an outreach tool. The telescope is sensitive to the light of the 21cm neutral hydrogen line that can be used to observe our galactic neighbourhood. 

The new training stems from a collaboration with the SKAO during its 2025 Science Meeting in Görlitz, Germany, where a workshop was held for a group of local high school students to build their own TTRTs and perform measurements of radio signals from the Milky Way. The success of the workshop led to adaptations of the design and its frequent use as part of the outreach and science communication activities at the German Centre for Astrophysics (DZA). 

Now the programme has been further adapted into a “train the trainer” model for teachers and educators, including a two-day training in April in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, in close collaboration with DESY and the Junior Academy of Science of Ukraine in the city. A second training event in Görlitz took place in June. In total, the two sessions welcomed more than 30 participants. 

“Our evaluation results and feedback from the educators show that they are extremely interested in making use of radio astronomy for education, and they have given valuable insights that will help us further refine the sessions. We’ve also seen that this growing community wants to be involved in developing the programme further, so we are excited to continue to expand into more places,” says Martin Schwinzerl of the DZA.