Laboratory Exercises Using the Haystack VSRT Interferometer To Teach the Basics of Aperture Synthesis

Autor:	Marr, J. M., Pere, A., Durkota, K., Rogers, A. E. E., Fish, V., Arndt, M. B.
Rok vydání:	2011
Předmět:	Physics - Physics Education Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Druh dokumentu:	Working Paper
Popis:	We have developed a set of college level, table-top labs that can be performed with an interferometer using satellite TV electronics and compact fluorescent lamps as microwave signal sources. This interferometer, which was originally developed at the MIT Haystack Observatory as a Very Small Radio Telescope (VSRT) to observe the Sun, provides students with hands-on experience in the fundamentals of radio interferometry. These labs are easily performed and convey an intuitive sense of how combining the signals from an array of antennas reveals information about the structure of a radio source. We have also developed a package of java programs, called "VSRTI Plotter", which is available as a free-download, to facilitate the data processing and analysis of these labs. Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, submitted to the American Journal of Physics, for information about parts and assembly see http://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/undergrad/VSRT/index.html, for lab instructions and zip files of java programs see https://www1.union.edu/marrj/radioastro/labfiles.html
Databáze:	arXiv
Externí odkaz:	http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.3816 Zobrazit plný text záznamu View this record from Arxiv