New to radio astronomy

[Asur84]

Hi,

I am currently looking into radio astronomy but to say my knowledge is limited would be an understatement.

I am wondering if anyone can recomend any books etc on the subject and any articles etc that focus on the practicle side.

Many thanks in advance

[SteveNickolls]

Hi Asur84, although I can't recommend any particular book on the subject I notice there are a lot of Internet sites with information on the subject and some must have further reading lists you could follow up :-)

Best of luck with your research.

Best Regards,

Steve

[John101]

• Asur84,

  How about…a tip or two to get started…

  Radio receivers ‘no matter which’ come in many forms with cost being paramount.

  To day as we speak a PC USB ‘dongle’ such as the NooElect R820T SDR & DVB-T SDR Mini (apx $30 US), a short (6 inch) coax cable with special antenna port connector (apx $6 US), a basic dipole (like TV ‘rabbit ears’) and 30 feet or so of TV coax plus several free software downloads will get you ON THE AIR. 

  You will need IQ-SDR software such as SDR# (# is pronounced ‘sharp’) or HDSDR for the dongle, both image and sound capture, we can talk mode and resolution later.  SpectrumLab is the cat’s meow for “raster” processing but because of its size and many options come with a very-stiff learning curve. I recommend ARGO143, an outstanding weak signal raster processor as your first step, both download free and will image and sound capture.  Also pick up a copy of IrfanView, my favorite image and sound manager, also a free download to ‘screen capture’ and playback those magnificent-moments!

  All the above run simultaneous on my WindowsXP laptop

  For 50 bucks or so you’ll find several interesting watering holes, such as, around 20 MHz Saturn, 55 to 76 MHz analog TV pilot carriers and forward meteor scatter, 144 MHz the delightful Graves forward meteor scatter with only a 36 inch dipole. Get you feet wet here then advance to specific bands with specialized high gain antenna, RF amplifiers and filters This dongle will tune up to almost ‘daylight’.  Some specialized radio telescopes go to the South Pole in search of gravity waves!!!

  p.s. FWIW…My dongle far out performs my Icom 706 and Yeasu 817 from an MDS verses bandwidth and mode selection in the VHF and UHF bands, just the opposite on HF.

  73,

  John

  N3AAZ

  FM19xa

[Asur84]

Thanks John

Thats given me a good basis to start from amd just glad that it can all be done quite cheaply to start with too.

Going to have a look around at equipment and hopefully get myself started by christmas.

[davkt]

Oooh interesting, I'm pretty sure I've got one of those dongles kicking around somewhere so will have a play.

[davkt]

Oh and I just came across this page of radio astronomy book reviews. http://www.reeve.com/RadioScience/Radio%20Astronomy%20Publications/Radio_Astronomy_Book_Reviews.htm