Firmament is Java application / PD patch that was built to interface with data coming from a radio telescope. It was initially developed during the acoustic.space.lab project at Ventspils Starptautiskais Radioastronomijas Centrs, the VIRAC radiotelescopes, Irbene, Latvia, in August 2oo1. The project was organised by RIX-C and involved more than 30 artists from all over the world. Firmament reads in data coming in to the dish which is interpreted by a computer at the facility. Each line of data includes a UTC timestamp, the azimuth (the angle around the horizon) and the elevation of the dish (the angle up from the horizon towards the zenith, the point overhead) and the dish temperature or the strength of the signal received at that point in space. The 32m dish we were using was 'listening' at a frequency of 11GHz.