Radio Astronomy

Leidenfrost

Hello, I've been interested in doing some serious Radio Astronomy for some time, and was wondering if any of you crazy cats know of someone here doing a bit, or if there is a club in Ireland?

I've contacted the Communications Regulator on Abbey Street and to operate a trasmitter I have to sit a test, know Morse code etc. (finally a use for a skill that I thought I'd never get to use :-)

I am not a complete noob, I'm familiar with the concept of Meteor burst communication and during Meteor showers I regularly tune in to radio stations that normally I can't receive, the meteor's ionisation trails serve as a useful reflector and I get a few seconds of German or Norwegian at times which is fun(especially when clouds are obscuring the Meteor shower)

For all you visible spectrum folk, I think Radio Astronomy can serve as a secondary pursuit when the clouds are out ruining our views of the cosmos.

Eager to hear feedback,

Beannacht libh!

Tomk1

I often wondered if it would be possible to do radio-astronomy in the microwave band with an old analog satillite dish, say pics of the sun?

Also here's a link to Eldfordstown Cork.
http://www.nationalspacecentre.eu/
and use as a radio-telescope by CIT
http://sunnyspells.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/a-radio-telescope-in-midleton/

Cadoche

Good on you, Laiden. I think you're embarking on something worthwhile and interesting too. My advise if for you to contact astronomy.ie and I'm sure they'll be able to answer your queries. Goodluck.

Seanie M

A couple of us in the Midlands Astronomy Club through Tullamore have done some radio astronomy. One member has been doing it since the early 90's and has the accolade of the first amateur radio telescope in Ireland. I myself dabble in it. I use a Bearcat scanner and an RTE 2 television (dipole) antenna on an 8 foot pole. I have had mixed results but it is more for fun than a serious aspect of Astronomy. I do have an old pen recorder I plan to use shortly. I moved house last month so I have more room to set this stuff up now than I did before without my wife giving me funny looks in the spare bedroom anymore!

What can I detect? A good night will get a few meteor bursts, that's what this set up will do. I have a circular dipole antenna to fix up that will allow me to 'hear' the Crab Nebula (and most other powerful pulsar sources in the sky) and the Jupiter-Io interaction as well as more meteors.

Seanie.

Leidenfrost

Thanks for the links Tomk1, I must take a swing down to Cork one of these days and drop into Blackrock castle too.

Seanie, that's the kind of thing I would like to get into, Did your friend in Tullamore have to sit the Communications regulation exam? and has he any contacts on the continent who enjoy Meteor burst communications?

Seanie M

Leidenfrost wrote: »

Seanie, that's the kind of thing I would like to get into, Did your friend in Tullamore have to sit the Communications regulation exam? and has he any contacts on the continent who enjoy Meteor burst communications?

Hi Leidenfrost,

No, no exams. He is a retired Communications Officer in the Irish Army. He played with all sorts of radio gear only you and I could dream about getting our hands on! He was always in to Astronomy, so it was a bit of a no brainer that he would experiment with Radio Astronomy.

I got your PM and I will send on details.

Seanie.

Rubecula

Seanie, how do you know what you are listening to?

How is it possible to target something like the Crab Nebula for example. It could just as easily be a pigeon farting couldn't it?

I can understand how a giant directional dish (Like Jodrell Bank) can target something accurately, but with a di-pole I simply can not get my head around knowing what you are picking up.:(

Seanie M

Hi Rubecula,

It's not rocket science really. Once you have the setup you want, such as a circular or 2-prong dipole, you are essentially pointing it at the intended object while connected to an audio receiver. Once you begin to hear the tell-tale static or pinging then you delicately move it a bit more until the audio is at its strongest (but the range of pick up is quite broad).

The Crab Nebula pulsar for example spins like a a lighthouse beam (like all pulsars do). It's when the beam swings by Earth that we pick up the radio interference like a 'beep'. You would hear an average of 30 pings per second with this one. There are, naturally, slower and faster spinning pulsars in the Universe that can be detected.

The signal that can be picked up of the Jupiter-Io interaction sounds like waves on a seashore and will go on for as long as Io is on our side of Jupiter.

The signals of all regular radio astronomy sources are consistent and would not be like a pigeon farting! All static you hear on a blank area of any radio band (FM/MW/LW etc) is background static and is a collection of random signals that most have been going round since the purported Big Bang.

Seanie.

Leidenfrost

Seanie M wrote: »

Hi Rubecula,

It's not rocket science really. Once you have the setup you want, such as a circular or 2-prong dipole, you are essentially pointing it at the intended object while connected to an audio receiver. Once you begin to hear the tell-tale static or pinging then you delicately move it a bit more until the audio is at its strongest (but the range of pick up is quite broad).

The Crab Nebula pulsar for example spins like a a lighthouse beam (like all pulsars do). It's when the beam swings by Earth that we pick up the radio interference like a 'beep'. You would hear an average of 30 pings per second with this one. There are, naturally, slower and faster spinning pulsars in the Universe that can be detected.

The signal that can be picked up of the Jupiter-Io interaction sounds like waves on a seashore and will go on for as long as Io is on our side of Jupiter.

The signals of all regular radio astronomy sources are consistent and would not be like a pigeon farting! All static you hear on a blank area of any radio band (FM/MW/LW etc) is background static and is a collection of random signals that most have been going round since the purported Big Bang.

Seanie.

Great post, I remember reading that a large precentage of TV snow static is CMB radiation, so we're really seeing information from near the beginning of the universe, it took WMAP to decipher it all though.

Sudden ionospheric disturbance(due to solar activity) radio astronomy can be done with a simple small loop antenna-
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/Distribution/SuperSID/supersid_v1_1/Doc/SuperSIDManual_v1.pdf

http://www.ips.gov.au/Educational/2/2/5