Radio Astronomy. How?

[long_arms]

Hello ,

I read an article in a magazine and I've decided I would really like to have a play with radio astronomy.

I could not know less about it.

I have no idea about any equipment or anything, I've searched on the internet but the few websites are all extremely confusing to me.

I would like to detect solar activity but mainly meteor scatter. Nothing else to start with anyhow.

Is there a very cheap but proven solution to achieve this? I want a visual representation on my computer if possible?

Thanks and forgive me for my ignorance ,

Dan

[ronin]

Know nothing, however:

BritAstro1

BritAstro2

BA3

Possibly

SPAM

Have no idea if any have simple plans for construction+electronics etc but one will I guess, possibly easier to email.

Suspect an old sky dish could come in useful.

Also someone here may well have nice easy to construct plans etc.

[jkwhinfrey]

Ronin has provided some good links.

The simplest place to start is monitoring Sudden Ionospheric Disturbances - SIDs - which turn up as changes in the reception of Very Low Frequency radio stations. These clearly show patterns due to solar flares, and all with a simple 400mm square loop antenna made out of 24 SWG enamelled wire and plugged into your sound card.

Meteor monitoring is a little more expensive because it requires a radio receiver - sound card won't do. Many are using the FunCube Dongle - http://www.funcubedongle.com/ - that plugs into a USB port. The other end of the dongle is attached to something like a three element Yagi aerial, which is mounted about 3m in the air and pointed in the direction of Lyon - there's a military radar installation there.

Both of these things use free software that runs on Windows ;-( and you can download.

I know that the BAA Radio Astronomy Group is working on simpler and cheaper ways of getting into this sort of thing, they're amongst the links I think.

Hope that helps a bit, I'm sure there are others around here that know more than me.

James

[Wyvern]

May I suggest you get hold of "The Radio Sky and how to observe it", by Jeff Lashley from Springer . (ISBN 9781441908827. I've long held passing interest and desire to explore Radio astronomy and after my wife bought this tome as a xmas pressy, well, she's only got herself to blame for the steady loss of garden space! An excellent book and easy to understand .... must be if I can build things from it!

Regards, Les

[Carl Reade]

Hi, heres a link to one of the easiest you can make. A Sky dish, cheap sat finder and other bits and bobs. If you can put this together your on your way.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=very%20small%20radio%20telescope&source=web&cd=21&cad=rja&ved=0CCwQFjAAOBQ&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nastro.org.uk%2Fhow-to-build-a-radio-telescope.html&ei=z175Uf7zGOqN0AWWzYGoCQ&usg=AFQjCNFhZxwmi9NCb8hRP1Z5RG44VUhFOw

Cheers Carl