Pulsars and fast transients with LOFAR

The LOw Frequency ARray is the first of the next generation of radio telescopes to be completed. It uses large numbers of small receptors and vast computing and data transport capabilities to achieve a high degree of sensitivity over large fields of view. It uses two different types of receptor to enable it to observe over the frequency range 10-260 MHz. Here we report on some of the capabilities of this telescope for pulsar and fast transient research. We also present some results of the commissioning work that we have been carrying out which highlight the exciting potential of this telescope. These include simultaneous imaging and pulsar observations, simultaneous observations spanning 30-8000 MHz, a large number of known pulsars detected in the high band and the detection of PSR B0809+74 down to a frequency of 16 MHz