Eastern
Michigan University
Astronomy
Club
The 1.42 GHz Astronomy
Club Radio Telescope
The EMU Astronomy Club has been working on the ambitious project of building a 1.42 GHz hydrogen emission line radio telescope over the past few years. The scope consists of a refurbished 10-foot satellite dish antenna with frequency-specific feed horn, sensitive receiver electronics, and computer interface for data acquisition. The project is now under the direction of Dr. Patrick Koehn, who secured a grant to help advance the project, with input from Astronomy Club members Jack Underwood, Jay Sinclair, David Sitar, Graduate Assistant Jesse Mason, and student Ira Sanborn. Mr. Bob Justin has been busy working on machining parts and configuring motor drives for the scope.
The scope has seen 'first wave' with scans of the galactic plane and a few select radio objects in the past. Here is a signal
trace of radio galaxy M87 (Virgo A) by using manual scan. EMU Student Government has provided funding for new hardware. The dish and mount are being configured to operate in alt-azimuth mode on a metal framework located on the east end of the Sherzer Observatory deck. Here are images of work progressing on the scope....
Watch here for future images, data, and updates
on this project.
If you have any questions about the telescope,
please direct your emails to Jack or Jay above.
Related Links
Arecibo Observatory (NAIC)
Haystack Small Radio
Telescope
Amateur
Radio and Radio Astronomy Organizations
National Radio Astronomy Observatories
(NRAO)
Society of Amateur Radio
Astronomers (SARA)
University of Indianapolis
Radio Astronomy
