Student project: radio telescope for amateur astronomers

© ASTRON

At the end of July four students of the University of Groningen visited ASTRON for a three week Honours Master project. At ASTRON the students have been working on the design, construction and test of a phased array radio telescope for amateur astronomers. With support of Roel Witvers and Peter Maat the students built a prototype radio telescope set consisting of a signal processor unit to which two types of antennas can be connected. The two antenna types can be used for observations at 300 MHz and 1.4 GHz. The 300 MHz system, which has two antennas, was used for detecting solar fringes, whereas the single 1.4 GHz antenna allowed the users to detect the galactic plane. The photo shows the students during the presentation of their project at the RU Groningen. The insets show the 300 MHz antenna (left) and three of the students at Huisje West checking the results of an observation (right).