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.