A Small Radio Telescope for Undergraduate Astronomy

TitleA Small Radio Telescope for Undergraduate Astronomy
Faculty/College/UnitScience
StatusCompleted
Duration1 Year
Initiation04/01/2010
Completion03/31/2011
Project Summary

The ASTR 405 astronomy laboratory course aims to teach our senior undergraduates observing and data reducion techniques by having them conduct “classic” observations. The small optical telescope currently on the roof of EOS East will be taken down when that building is demolished. This provides an opportunity to revamp the lab and introduce new experiments. In particular, we can broaden the scope of the course to include radio-wavelength observations, mapping the velocities of hydrogen in our Galaxy — part of the evidence for the existence of dark matter — and conducting observations of The Sun. This would be accomplished by installing a ready-made small radio telescope. We will make this telescope available to physics students taking the PHYS 409B project lab course, and use data from it to illustrate the principles of the dark-matter and various solar experiments to many of the lower-level courses in the astronomy program, reaching a large cross-section of students.

Funding Details
Year 1: Project YearYear 1
Year 1: Funding Year2010/2011
Year 1: Project TypeSmall TLEF
Year 1: Principal InvestigatorIngrid Stairs
Year 1: Funded Amount6,030
Year 1: Team Members

Ingrid Stairs, Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science
Harvey Richer, Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science
Jaymie Matthews, Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science
Jeremy Heyl, Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science
Jasper Wall, Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science
Peter Newbury, Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science