2024 events

Sun 31st
09:30-10:00
Starlight Room

A Backyard Radio Telescope

Robert Shaw

CSIRO

In this presentation, I will describe how I put together a VHF two-element phase-switched interferometer from Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) antennas and surplus lab equipment. The interferometer has the same architecture as that described in Martin Ryle's classic 1952 paper "A new radio interferometer and its application to the observation of weak radio stars". Improvements in electronics technology over the past seventy years now bring a project like this within the reach of the skilled amateur. Sample observations will be presented, showing interference fringes from the Sun and stronger radio sources.

Robert Shaw is an electronics engineer at CSIRO Space and Astronomy, where he designs electronics for radio astronomy receivers, most recently the cryogenic phased-array receiver for the 64-m Parkes antenna. He has been a keen amateur astronomer since childhood, has recently caught the "eclipse chasing bug", and only in the past couple of years has turned his hand to amateur radio astronomy.