Help with Radio Astronomy

[stern_forscher]

I am a high school student who has a very keen interest in space, especially the fun stuff (like astrophysics, etc...). I would like to build a radio telescope to further my exploration of the heavens and was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to do it on my extremely shoestring budget. I have done a great deal of research, I am just looking for all the help I can get.

 

[tfwthom]

Might find some useful info here:<br /><br />Radio-Sky Publishing was established to help make the fascinating world of radio astronomy accessible to a wide audience of students, teachers and amateur scientists http://www.radiosky.com/<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>

 

[stern_forscher]

Been there... pdf'ed most documents / informational pages on the site and read through it.

 

[pizzaguy]

You might try these sites (they will help you understand the RADIO part of radioastronomy, which may help you avoid spending dollars that would be wasted.)<br /><br />www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/<br />www.nrao.edu/whatisra/<br />www.arrl.org<br />www.w8ji.com<br /><br />I hope this helps. There is a segment of Ham Radio operators who spend most of their time in Radio Astronomy, but I can't find their website now (Google seldom fails, but this time it did), I ran across it by accident in the past few years. Maybe you can to go www.eham.net and post a question - let THEM come to you!!!!<br /><br />Mark<br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1"><em>Note to Dr. Henry:  The testosterone shots are working!</em></font> </div>

 

[tfwthom]

The Jan 05 Sky and Telescope has a piece on amateur radio astronomy. Check it out. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="1" color="#3366ff">www.siriuslookers.org</font> </div>

 

[nexium]

You know those big dish satellite receivers people bought 8 to 15 years ago? Most of them are unused and can likely be purchased for about $50. Sorry I don't know how to optimise the receiver for radio astronomy, but the receiver has most everything you need, if someone knows how to make the minor electronic modifcations. The control arm will, all but surely, not track the Clark arc after you re-install the dish, but you want to look at an arc of sky that does not contain satellites, so that is good. The six to ten foot dish will not detect the weaker radio sources, but you should be able to hear the hiss on the TV speakers from the strongest sources without modification. You need to learn the fancier option of the receiver for satelite reception. There are dozens of channels that are not scrambled. If you buy a system operational on Ku band as well as C band, you will have additional frequencies you can search. Neil

 

[arcticfox]

I've got a 12 foot dish (8-part sectional) that I'd love to find out how to hook up a good HF reciever to!<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />

 

[dave_uk]

You might want to check out the seti leagues project argus, although its geared towards seti theres lots of usefull information on building a radiotelescope and the designs can be used for radioastronomy (as well as seti)<br /><br />http://www.setileague.org/argus/index.html<br /><br />