| Title | A Small Radio Telescope for Undergraduate Astronomy |
|---|---|
| Faculty/College/Unit | Science |
| Status | Completed |
| Duration | 1 Year |
| Initiation | 04/01/2010 |
| Completion | 03/31/2011 |
| 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 Year | Year 1 |
| Year 1: Funding Year | 2010/2011 |
| Year 1: Project Type | Small TLEF |
| Year 1: Principal Investigator | Ingrid Stairs |
| Year 1: Funded Amount | 6,030 |
| Year 1: Team Members | Ingrid Stairs, Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science |