My first serious look at Radio Astronomy came at the 2007 Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers convention at Green Bank West Virginia. There they had speakers from the beginner like me to the more serious advance. It was there I signed up to learn how to operate the 40’ Student Radio Telescope. Tom Crowley introduced the group to radio astronomy by assigning teams and then giving each team a task. We learned how to find a radio source. Then we learned to point the telescope. We also learned how to synchronize the plotter. We pointed the telescope at the first target and by using mathematics that some of the more advance students learned in high school, calculated the object contained Hydrogen, and that the object was moving away from us. I don’t ever remember having to do this with my optical astronomy instruments. I found out that the education director at Green Bank wanted volunteers to introduce the public to radio astronomy by using what they called an Itty Bitty Telescope. It looks like an old Direct TV satellite dish.
As you can see this is a Itty Bitty Telescope. Kids love it. This is one telescope they can actually use. Not only use but be encouraged to use. Below are some facts about the itty bitty telescope.
FACTS ABOUT THE ITTY BITTY TELESCOPE
- This is a 12,000 MHz radio telescope.
- It can detect frequencies in the range of 12,200 to 12,700 MHz.
- It is not a radio telescope system that can be used for serious sky surveys.
- It can detect the Sun.
- It can detect the body radiation.
- It can detect 300 deg K tree branches.
- Using the gain adjustor set it to 0 when pointed to cold sky. It should register 1/2 scale for human radiation or 300 deg K, and full scale on the Sun.
