Information for Observers

General information

The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT  Lat. 39°29'34"N - Long. 9°14'42" E) is about 45 km north of the Cagliari Airport , along the ss387 road.  Unfortunately, there is no public transport to the SRT site. Therefore renting a car is strongly recommended (car rentals are available at the airport or in the city center). The headquarters and main offices of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari (Lat. 39°16'55"N - Long. 9°07'52" E, via della Scienza, 5; Selargius) are located close to the SS387 road, on the outskirts of Cagliari and about 40 km south from SRT. We suggest the use of a GPS to reach either location.

A fully-equipped and furnished guest house (7 rooms with private bathrooms) is offered free of charge to the observers at the SRT site for the duration of their observing run. A kitchen is available in the main office building as well as in the guest house, but without any canteen/cafeteria services. There is no food or food delivery at the telescope, so make sure to bring food with you. Please contact your Project Friend as soon as possible if you want to stay at the guest house. 

You can find restaurants, markets, cafés etc. in Sant'Andrea Frius at about 10 km from SRT (on your way to the site from Cagliari) or in Silius (6 km from SRT). There is a small grocery store ("Nonna Isa") in Sant’Andrea Frius. Hours are: 8:00 - 13:00 and 16:45-19:30 Monday-Saturday (closed on Sundays). You can pick up pizzas at the "Su Nuraxi" restaurant in Sant’Andrea Frius (but they do not deliver any food to the telescope). There is no cash machine/ATM in Sant’Andrea Frius, and it is not possible to pay with a credit card in most restaurants close to SRT. It is therefore important to bring cash with you from Cagliari to cover local expenses (e.g. food and gas) for the duration of your stay at the telescope. If you are arriving at the Cagliari airport, you can pick up groceries at the small airport supermarket ("CRAI") at the arrivals lounge, which is open till 23:00 every day.

You also need to bring your own ethernet adaptor to access internet with your laptop. There is internet in the main office building (where the control room and guest office are located) but not in the guest house.

Before your arrival

Before your arrival, you need to :

1) communicate your MAC address to your Project Friend a few days before your arrival, so you can access internet at the site from your laptop

2) have your Project Friend book rooms in the guest house for all of the observers in your program 

3) Your schedules must also be ready before your arrival. If you have problems preparing them, you can ask help from user support (srt-usersupport.oaca@inaf.it). You can also ask advice to your project friend. It is recommended you send your schedules to the project friend a few days in advance via email so they can check them (it is only possible to do this at SRT via the “scheduleChecker”). Information on preparing your observing run and making SRT schedules is provided here:

http://www.radiotelescopes.inaf.it

http://www.radiotelescopes.inaf.it/schedules.html

4) Also get yourselves acquainted with SRT procedures:

https://srt-procedures.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Arriving at SRT

The main role of the Project Friend/internal expert is to provide you with the technical information once you arrive at SRT and to give you support at the beginning of the observations.

At your arrival at SRT, the Project Friend will give you a set of keys. The first key allows you to enter the site. The second key is for the entry to the Office building where you can find the SRT control room, the Guest office and the kitchen. If you want to stay at the guest house, you will get a third key. You will need to return all keys at the end of your stay.

After the visit of the buildings, your Project Friend will give you a short training (about one hour) in the control room. The Project Friend will also stay with you at the beginning of your session to give you support. You will then be independent with your observations. During the day, you can always contact your project friend via telephone in case of problems (e.g. Monday to Friday from 9am to 6pm).

Rules at the SRT site

• It is forbidden to go underneath the antenna for obvious security reasons.

  Your mobile phone has to be set to airplane mode.

• Please, switch-off the Wi-Fi of your computer.

• Read carefully how to use the radio. It is important, in case of problems, to communicate with the security guard. The security guard service for the whole SRT site is active from 6pm to 9am from Monday to Friday and 24 hours on weekends and holidays.

• Pay attention to the use of the microwave ovens. If observations in L-band are being carried out, do not use them.

• You have to park your car following indications.

  Note: the water in the kitchen, bathroom and guest house is not potable. Use for washing is ok, but not drinking.

Guest house information

If you plan to stay at the guest house, please contact the project friend as soon as possible. He/she will book a room for you. Rooms are cleaned and refurbished between 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm on weekdays only. To allow the cleaning service to clean your room, place the key in the living room wall and expose the "Please make up room" card outside the door. You do not have internet access in your room. Instead, you can have it in the guest office of the main building. For safety reasons, please always show the "Please do not disturb" card outside the door when you are inside the room in order to warn the security guards about your presence inside the guest house.

At the moment, there is no telephone service inside the guest house. In case of emergency or necessity, it is possible to use the intercom system located at the entrance to communicate with people present in the Control Room or in the other buildings of the site. To contact the guard on duty, use the radio transmitter that is in the living room. Instructions for its use are near the radio itself.

Contacts in case of emergency

In case of emergency, please contact the adequate people:

Depending on the problem: N° Tel.

Ordine Pubblico (Carabinieri, Polizia) 112/113

Stazione Carabinieri San Basilio 0709339022

Incendio, Allagamenti, Calamità naturali (Corpo Vigili del Fuoco) 115

Emergenza sanitaria 118

What you have to say on the telephone (unfortunately, it is very likely that people you will call do not speak English). You can say the following sentences in this case:

• Sono - (name and surname)

• Telefono dal sito del Sardinia Radio Telescope

• (Ubicato nella Strada Provinciale 25 al km 0,900 per Silius.)

• Si è verificato - (description of the problem)

• Sono coinvolte - (indicate the affected people)

• Il mio numero di telefono è - (indicate your telephone number)

• Do not close the communication first.

For severe emergency related to the antenna, contact SRT Operations Manager: Sergio Poppi (N. Tel indicated in control room)         

 For further information, please write to srt-usersupport.oaca@inaf.it