CAMK Small Radio Telescope<br> CAMK Small Radio Telescope (CSRT)

CAMK small radio telescope (CSRT)

With the era of Software Defined Radio, it became possible to build a small radio telescope at a low cost.
In December 2023 at a scientific outreach talk (in Polish) in "Spotkania z astronomia" cycle in CAMK, we presented some new developments in the amateur radio astronomy and the project of building a small radio telescope.
In the first phase of our CAMK Small Radio Telescope project we built a small horn antenna in the CAMK workshop from the old advertisement board and purchased the basic electronic equipment: 8 and 12 bit receivers, low noise amplifiers (one narrow band with filters for H1 line and the other wide band; all together for less than 2000 PLN, about 450 EUR).

We first presented the completed horn antenna at CAMK Open day and at the Science Festival in 2024. We observed the 21cm neutral hydrogen line in our Galaxy.

We prepared the informative leaflet (both in Polish and English), which was dispatched in public events and online, with the detailed instruction for building the telescope.
In further development we plan to build other antennas to observe the Sun and Jupiter, and later experiment with building a small interferometer.
The project, funded by CAMK, is meant as an addition for -not only CAMK- students, to instruct them in basics of radio astronomy and signal processing. We will continue to engage with the general public, promoting the new possibilities in amateur radio-astronomy.
During the spring semester 2024, the first student project by students from the Warsaw University was completed. Using CAMK horn antenna and freely available DSPIRA software, students measured the hydrogen line at 21cm from our Galaxy.

Building instruction/Instrukcja budowy by Miki (EN): PDF file, 3.7MB
Software installation instruction/Instrukcja instalacji oprogramowania by Miki (EN): txt file

Useful literature and links:
Mhaske et al. on building a small radio telescope, Fung et al., "Wok the Hydrogen...a kitchenware radio telescope", NRAO course on essential radio astronomy, WIKI on SDR, What is SDR, Osmocom, N. Schreiber on building a home-made radio telescope, PhysicsOpenLab gnuradio software

Last updated: November 2024 by Miki. All rights reserved. Materials are available for download for personal use only. Any other use requires referencing of this webpage or prior permission of the author.

CAMK small radio telescope (CSRT)

Last updated: November 2024 by Miki. All rights reserved. Materials are available for download for personal use only. Any other use requires referencing of this webpage or prior permission of the author.

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