________ ______ _ ______ ___ ____ __ _ /_ __/ / ___ __ / / __ \ | / / __/ / _ )__ __/ / /__ / /_(_)__ / / / _ \/ -_) / // / /_/ / |/ / _/ / _ / // / / / -_) __/ / _ \ /_/ /_//_/\__/ \___/\____/|___/___/ /____/\_,_/_/_/\__/\__/_/_//_/ -the newsletter* of NASA's Radio JOVE Project "Planetary Radio Astronomy for Schools" * This newsletter is best viewed using a fixed-width font such as Courier. This will allow the logo above and tables etc. to be aligned properly. MARCH 2001 ISSUE *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* Visit our Web Site: http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov Email Radio JOVE at: rj_project@radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* CONTENTS 1. Technical Tip - Antenna adjustments for low altitude Jupiter and Sun 2. Feedback 3. Software Update - Radio-SkyPipe 4. RJ Jupiter and Solar Observation Archives 5. Observing Season 2000-2001 Summary 6. Radio JOVE at a Glance 7. Acknowledgments 8. Subscription Information 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 Technical tip - Antenna adjustments for low altitude Jupiter and Sun by Jim Thieman Jim Thieman sent this email around recently (late February 2001) on how to observe Jupiter and the Sun when they are lower in the sky. All that's required is a reconfiguration of the dipole antennas. This will also allow you to start observing Jupiter earlier in the next observing season starting late summer or early fall. You could also use this method for catching solar bursts when the Sun is in the early morning or late afternoon sky. ________________________________________________________________ As you may know we are coming to the end of the Jupiter observing season. Jupiter is now near the zenith when the sun goes down and, as it moves closer to the sun, there will be less and less time to observe it during quiet nighttime ionospheric conditions IF the radio beam from your antenna is pointed to the zenith in the standard way. You can extend your observing season by changing the orientation of your standard double dipole antennas so that the dipoles are antiphased with each other. This will cause the sensitivity of the radio antenna to be directed in two different directions at 45 degrees away from the zenith rather than just one maximum sensitivity area at the zenith. (If you have the Radio Jupiter Pro software you can graphically see this by looking at the Sky Map screen and changing the JOVE antenna box in the lower right corner to read anti-phase NS and then double clicking on it to see the pattern on the sky.) We would like to hear how successful you observers are in getting results with your antennas in the antiphase position. To set up in this way all you have to do is first imagine that you have the antennas set up in the standard in-phase configuration (as described in the antenna manual) but with the wires running North-South and not East-West. Then take one of the two dipoles (it doesn't matter which one) and switch the support poles so that the north end now becomes the south end and vice versa. This is just a 180 degree rotation of that antenna's setup position. The double dipoles won't be quite as sensitive to Jupiter emissions in this configuration, but they will hopefully be better than if the standard in-phase configuration were used. ________________________________________________________ Note: During the Winter months when the noontime Sun is far to the south for northern observers this method of antiphasing the antennas will also help to get the Sun into the Radio JOVE beam but rather than turning the antennas to align North-South leave them in the East-West configuration, then antiphase them. 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2 Feedback This issue we feature Megan Phannenstill, a high school student from Greendale, Wisconsin. Megan is working on a project looking for correlations between solar radio bursts and sunspots. Last month, Megan shared her experiences on the Radio JOVE project with Illinois high school teachers participating in a workshop at Yerkes Observatory. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- My Experience With Radio Jove It all started when I decided to sign up for the class called Independent Science Research Project. I had no idea what I wanted to do for a project, but I liked the idea of doing something involving astronomy. It turned out that a friend from my Church had a son-in-law who worked for NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center. A connection was born! I contacted Dr. Len Garcia, and became aware of the Radio Jove Project. As I began to investigate their web site and research about radio astronomy, I knew at last that I had found my project! Now the question was what exactly was I going to do with this receiver once I built it? I did more research and found out that we were currently experiencing solar maximum and that sunspot activity was very high. Going further into my research it was apparent that the sunspot cycle also affected the radio world. After discussing it with my teacher, I decided to compare the number of sunspots to the intensity of solar radio emission. I remember the day very clearly, when I received the Radio Jove kit from Priority Mail. As I delicately opened the brown box, my eyes became wide with surprise. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. As I looked through the bags and bags of parts, I realized the time and effort I would be putting into this project. In the beginning things were not easy. Building the receiver proved not to be difficult, but time consuming. Not to mention tons of fun! I finally learned what soldering was and how to do it properly. Approximately 9 hours later the time had come to finally turn it on, and I hopefully crossed my fingers. As I slowly turned on the receiver a loud whistle came from the speaker and a sigh of relief, plus a shout of joy, was heard throughout the house! I was completely amazed that I, a 16 year old girl, was able to put together a receiver to pick up radio waves from Jupiter and the Sun! My next task was to put together the antenna. This was easier than actually building the receiver, but it still took lots of labor. The day finally came when I drove out to my cousin's house to set up all that I had built. The weather was extremely brutal, and I would never recommend putting up the antenna in the cold unless you like losing your fingers! It took me about an hour to erect the antenna with the help from my cousin and my mom. I then proceeded to hook up the receiver and the recorder. Eagerly, I turned it on hoping to hear a loud static sound, but instead the first thing I heard was a Spanish radio station! I could just imagine what my teacher would say when I told her I was listening to La Bomba instead of solar radio waves! I was a little disheartened by this, but I kept trying. I heard several other things such as the WWV station from Colorado and it was soon obvious that the site I had picked was not going to work. Too much interference was coming through, so I moved it once again. This time I picked a better site with less interference, but it was too far away for me to visit often enough. After meeting with Dr. Garcia, he suggested I move it to my neighbor's backyard with her permission. I also shipped my receiver to Mr. Flagg in Hawaii. He was kind enough to construct a filter for my receiver which helped greatly. With the help of everyone this project was finally coming together and I was able to collect 5 days worth of data for my project. I continue to work on collecting more data and putting together a paper for my project in hopes of proving my hypothesis, that sunspots affect solar radio emission. This entire experience was really amazing and it is something I will always remember. I hope to continue collecting data for the Radio Jove Project this summer and continue my work on my science project. I would also like to thank the people that made this all possible. To Dr. Garcia for his support and advice, Dr. Thieman and Mr. Flagg for all their help as well. Also to my mentor, Mr. Speranza, who helped me construct the receiver. Without him I don't think I could have done it! Thanks again to everyone. Megan Phannenstill __________________________________________________________ Followup by Dick Flagg The Jove receiver was designed specifically for reception of Jovian radio noise storms which are best heard late at night when the ionosphere overhead is transparent and there are few interfering stations present. Several observers (like Megan) are using the receiver for solar observations. During daylight hours many strong stations can be heard and occasionally the receiver will overload. The symptom is that one station is heard all over the dial - in other words it can't be tuned out. This problem was observed by Megan and other solar observers. The primary offending station appears to be Radio Marti broadcasting near 21.5 MHz. When Megan sent me her receiver I was pleased to find that she had done a good job of building the kit - there were no mistakes and she had done a good job of soldering in all the components. I designed and built a bandpass filter that goes between the antenna and the Jove receiver - this device helps to filter out interfering stations such as Radio Marti. For additional information on this filter you can contact Dick Flagg at rf@hawaii.rr.com. 3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3 Software Update - Radio-SkyPipe by Jim Sky What is Radio-SkyPipe? Radio-SkyPipe is a free Windows computer program which you can use to record stripcharts using your sound card. In this capacity the program fills the same role as that played by the JoveChart program which many Jove participants use. However, Radio-SkyPipe can perform some additional functions which you may find of value. With Radio-SkyPipe you can send and receive stripchart data over the internet in real time. You can watch the data from someone else's receiver come out on the strip chart just as though it were your own. We have been using the program to deliver live stripcharts over the internet from the receiver at the Windward Community College Radio Observatory on Oahu for many months. With Radio-SkyPipe you can monitor these observations or the observations of anyone else who is using the program as a "stripchart server". Using even a low speed dial-up internet connection, you can also use this same program to deliver your own observations over the internet to other Radio-SkyPipe users. In fact, you can send and receive stripcharts simultaneously, so the program makes possible real time correlations of observations by widely separated observers. One aspect of using Radio-SkyPipe that we have found very productive and enjoyable, is that during an observation, you can open a chat window right within the program and exchange comments with all others who are monitoring the same observation. Wes Greenman of the UFRO has hosted several Radio-SkyPipe sessions from his home observatory in Florida. Our experiences chatting in the Radio-SkyPipe chat window during these observations made even the times when Jupiter was quiet seem more exciting and entertaining. One thing Radio-SkyPipe does not do, is stream the actual audio across the internet. You do not hear the distant observers radio audio on your PC using Radio-SkyPipe. If however, the remote observatory does stream audio over the internet using, Shoutcast, or Windows Media Player, and you receive the audio stream locally using the appropriate software, you can chart the sound with Radio-SkyPipe just as though it was being created by your own receiver. In other words, Radio-SkyPipe has the ability to chart whatever sound passes through your sound card including audio which is being delivered across the internet. Radio-SkyPipe has so many features that we can't go into all of them here. You are invited to read through the help pages for the program at: http://radiosky.com/skypipehelp/skypipe1beta.html Radio-SkyPipe is supported for Windows 95 and Windows 98/ Me operating systems. It is not recommended for Windows 2000 or Windows NT at this time. You may download Radio-SkyPipe at: http://radiosky.com/skypipeishere.html Note: JoveChart and Radio-SkyPipe are mutually incompatible. Installing Radio-SkyPipe will disable JoveChart. A commercial upgrade version of the program is also available which allows sending multiple channels, recording wav files, modifying time stamps, exporting to spreadsheets, and other features which you may find useful. The free Standard version, however, will provide you with loads of functionality and will greatly enhance your Jupiter observing experience. Join us on line with Radio-SkyPipe. Any questions or trouble reports regarding Radio-SkyPipe can be sent to: skypipehelp@radiosky.com 4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4 RJ Jupiter and Solar Observation Archives Several Radio JOVE participants have been active in making Jovian and Solar observations. The data, in the form of images, JoveChart log files and sound files have been made available to other Radio JOVE participants to compare with their own observations. Here are some of the web sites where you can find Radio JOVE data: **University of Florida Radio Observatory (UFRO)** http://ufro1.astro.ufl.edu/ The team at the University of Florida have made available archived data not only of their Radio JOVE receiver but also of the wideband TP antennas at frequencies above and below the RJ receiver frequency. (TP antennas look like American Indian Teepee tents, but made out of spirals of wire.) The site also contains extensive documentation on Jupiter observing and why Jupiter is emitting these radio bursts we hear. During the Jupiter observing season this site has streaming data from their observatory. **Windward Community College Radio Observatory (WCCRO)** http://jupiter.wcc.hawaii.edu/ This team has just added a log-periodic antenna to their observatory. (A log-periodic looks somewhat like a big home TV antenna.) Besides their sound and stripchart archives there are also photographs of the site, the antennas and streaming data. **The Stanback Planetarium and Amateur Radio Astronomy Website.** http://www.draco.scsu.edu/radioastro.html Here you can find screen snapshots of Radio JOVE data for Jupiter and Solar events. There are also lots of radio astronomy links here. **Fast Drift Burst Observatory** http://www.heliotown.com/ Available at this site are sound files and images of stripcharts of the Sun and Jupiter recorded by Tom Ashcraft in Lamy, New Mexico. If you have posted any of your Radio JOVE data on the web let us know. We will be making available data files, logs, etc. on our central project web site very soon, so do send us files of observations you think are worth showing to others. 5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5 Observing Season 2000-2001 Summary by Dick Flagg and Jim Thieman As we approach conjunction (June 14, 2001) the 2000-2001 Jupiter observing season is coming to a close. At conjunction, the Sun is in line with Jupiter and radio observations are impossible. The next observing season will start in the early morning hours of September 2001 as Jupiter moves away from the Sun, and appears in the eastern sky before sunrise. This has been a busy and productive year for the Radio Jove Program. Several notable events include- * The University of Florida Radio Observatory (UFRO) and the Windward Community College Radio Observatory (WCCRO) in Hawaii have begun Internet broadcasting of real-time data and audio signals during predicted Jupiter radio noise storms. http://jupiter.wcc.hawaii.edu/, http://ufro1.astro.ufl.edu/ * 21 Jupiter observations were added to the UFRO online data archive since September 2000. 9 Solar and 6 Jovian observations were added to the WCCRO archive. * A paper was delivered and the Jove receiver and antenna were demonstrated at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenbank, West Va. during the annual July meeting of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA). * 120 radio kits were distributed to schools and observers in 27 states and 21 countries. * About 15 telephone conference calls were sponsored by NASA allowing Jove program observers to discuss their observations during predicted radio noise storms. * 13 kits were assembled by Illinois school teachers at Yerkes Observatory on the weekend of Feb 9-11 during the "Near and Far Sciences IV: Build Your Own Technologies" workshop under the direction of Vivian Hoette and Sue Ann Heatherly * The new book "Listening to Jupiter" became available both on the Jove CD and in printed form from RadioSky Publishing (radiosky@radiosky.com) * Radio Jupiter Pro - Jove Edition, JoveChart Editor and Radio SkyPipe were written and made available to Jove participants by Jim Sky. Radio Jupiter Pro allows observers to predict when Jupiter radio noise storms are likely to occur. JoveChart Editor aids in the manipulation of JoveChart data files while SkyPipe is an improved software stripchart program that includes many features not available in JoveChart. * Wes Greenman broadcast real time data from his "Alachua Observatory" during several storms using the Radio SkyPipe software. * Educational Materials were developed and added to the Radio Jove web site. * Solar bursts were received and recorded by several observers using the Radio Jove equipment. * Presentations on the Radio Jove Program were made at meetings of the NSTA, AGU, AAS, NCTM, and a variety of teacher workshops. * Radio Jove participants observed several Jovian radio noise storms during the last several months. Jovian activity was perhaps less spectacular this year than hoped for - most likely because we are at a time of maximum solar activity - which has the effect of making the earth's ionosphere more reflective to Jovian signals. Next year is expected to be a good observing year. The next several months are a good time for Jove observers to turn their attentions to the Sun. Coming Up: This summer members of the Radio JOVE core team will make a presentation at the "Small Radio Telescopes in Modern Astronomy" workshop in Brevard, North Carolina. Other Radio JOVE participants may want to consider presenting their results. Check out http://www.pari.edu/workshop for more information. 6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6-6 Radio JOVE at a Glance (from the RJ Web Site) * Teaches planetary and solar radio astronomy, space physics, and the scientific method * Target audience - Teachers and students of high school / college science courses * Provides teachers and students with a hands-on radio astronomy experience * Gain experience in electronics construction and testing * Interact with other Radio JOVE schools to exchange data, ideas, and experiences * Radio JOVE kits available for $125, additional equipment is required, including antenna supports, a tape recorder, and a PC with a sound card 7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Radio JOVE project is an educational/public outreach program involving scientists and educators from NASA, Raytheon ITSS, the University of Florida, the Florida Space Grant Consortium, RF Associates and The INSPIRE Project, Inc. The Radio JOVE project wishes to acknowledge support from the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Director's Discretionary Fund and the Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Science (IDEAS) grant program administered by the Space Telescope Science Institute. 8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8 THE JOVE BULLETIN SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION The JOVE Bulletin is published several times a year. It is a free service of the Radio JOVE Project. We hope you will find it of value. Back issues are available on the Radio JOVE Project Web site, http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov/ For assistance or information send inquiries to: Radio JOVE Project Code 633 NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 USA or Email: rj_project@radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov FAX: 1-301-286-1771 =======================================================================