Journal Club

Hello Astro Club!

Mark your calendars, the  first Journal club of 2012 will be January 11th.  Upon our return, we will be talking about our interplanetary neighbors, Mercury (the messenger ), Venus (the lover), and Mars (the solider).  Be sure to join us, Time TBD

The radio telescope

A group of us from the club are working on getting the radio telescope in order.

The McGill Radio Telescope

The radio telescope design was developed at the MIT haystack observatory.

Currently, the altitude motor does not slew, and we need to troubleshoot what is going on.

Recently, a new vane calibrator was also purchased to help with the noise calibration. It is not completely necessary as with the noise calibrator and the sun as a source, one should be able to calibrate the telescope.

Vane Calibrator

 

Nose of the telescope with servo motor holding vane calibrator.

Currently, the goals are:
1. Fix the altitude motor
2. Calibrate the noise calibrator
3. Measure rotation of the sun
4. Measure rotation of our galaxy

To expand the research using this telescope into more uncharted territory, you can find some interesting publications regarding the use of this telescope. These are a good starting point for ideas.
For example, there is an undergrad MIT thesis  about constructing a radio interferometer, using two SRT's! (time to request for some funding? ;-) )

If you are interested, please send a message to  the McGill Students' Astronomy Club by clicking this name.

More information will come along as the project progresses.

Links to websites of interest for the MSAC

Here are some links the McGill Student's Astronomy Club has accumulated throughout the semester.

• stellarium.org: Program that lets you see the night sky in your area for free 
• cleardarksky.com: check the sky forecast for astronomy 
• http://www.heavens-above.com/: find what satellites will be visible and when in the night sky 
• http://www.cloudynights.com: telescope reviews/news 
• http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/: astronomy picture of the day 
• http://www.spaceweather.com/: find out what current solar events are out there, great for checking up on Aurora Borealis! 
• Sky maps: 
• http://www.kenpress.com/ : very descriptive sky map. Works for our latitude nicely 
• http://www.skymaps.com/ : another nice sky map, more detailed. 
• Our C14 telescope website: http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/~aarchiba/c14.htm

Observation Night

Come join for another observation night. We'll try to look at the ring nebula, jupiter, andromeda and a few star clusters.

Ana McPherson Observatory, 3600 Rue University, Montreal, QC, H3A2T8

https://www.facebook.com/events/453386104717750/