Alex_Fla

Outstanding Work !  Congrats.    Alex Winter Springs Fla

Finally got around to processing some 24 hour drift scans from March ... This is my 1.2 meter diameter Radio Telescope tuned to the 1420 MHz Neutral Hydrogen RF Emission frequency of the large hydrogen clouds within the Milky Way.. The Y Scale is their Velocity relative to Earth ... up to ~90 Km/Sec .. This is a slice at Declination + 40 degrees. Alex

This is a very Old post, but I will suggest a few videos .. if you have any questions, Please Ask !  ..  Alex P

Too bad you trashed the reflector .. With a new feed and a nooelec SAWBird H1 you might have been impressed with its Performance !

Also, Dish <> Feed spacing is quite critical . With my 1.2m system, a shift of 5mm is quite measurable  !

Alex

A Photo Umbrella's shape is a very poor 'parabola'.

What it does have is a Deep shape that blocks the 290K radiation from surrounding ground/trees/buildings and provides a bit of RFI shielding. Also, it is easy to fabricate.

Your Reflector is (was) a superior design. but perhaps a bit shallow .. If You Do plan to make another one,  work toward an f/D  ratio of 0.3 to 0.35 .

For a more detailed video of my RT development :

Regards,

Alex

Do you have any data you could post ?

The biquad feed with its open ends allowed the loops to receive ground temperature noise,

and the proximity of the PC may have added RFI, but overall a very good effort !!

If you want to try something again, consider this  : It works reasonably well, is no more difficult to fabricate

than your Science Project, is low cost and  quite portable...

Regards,

Alex

Winter Springs Fla

Perhaps the title should read " Can't See This with Your Amateur Optical Telescope "

Even a small Radio Telescope can easily detect the Doppler Shift of interstellar neutral hydrogen gas clouds within the Milky Way.

The differing velocities of the Milky Way's Galactic Arms can be resolved and displayed .

This is an example of a single ( 5 minute ) scan .. The contour plot was the result of 8 hours of data collection.

Please consider joining SARA  Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers

Regards,

Alex