The newsletter of the Radio JOVE Project"Solar and Planetary Radio Astronomy for Schools"
The newsletter of the Radio JOVE Project
We would like to share an update on our Radio JOVE project that we started last year at Saint Francis University (SFU) at Loretto, Pennsylvania. Our project was set up as a collaboration between our engineering and astronomy faculty and undergraduate students. We envisioned the project as a student-driven initiative during which the students learn the basics of astronomy and electrical engineering, and gain skills like soldering and reading circuit boards. The university provided us with the initial funding to purchase two Radio JOVE 1.1 kits and approved a piece of land with an open horizon.
Our team, consisting entirely of female students (and two professors), just finished the building stage of our two radio telescopes. We now have two ready-to-be-tested, dual dipole antennas, working receivers, and a site that is free from nearby buildings. While working on the project, our ambitions and goals grew into our Rural Institute for Space Sciences and Engineering (RISE). And so, RISE is the name of the first radio telescope built at Saint Francis University.
We are now ready to put our antennas in place and start collecting data. In the process, we expect to learn and improve on how to analyze the data and how to improve on our setup. We hope to receive our first signal this June. Faculty and students are excited to “see” the Sun and Jupiter and perhaps give mapping the ionosphere and the Milky Way a try.
Word of the project spread across the campus, and many expressed their excitement and interest in radio astronomy. At last, at a location that averages 160 cloudy days per year, we will be able to direct our eyes to the sky.
Our current (and first) Radio JOVE team consists of Megan Oyaski, Anna Belle Stover, McKenzie Watt, and Drs. Lanika Ruzhitskaya and Tim Miller, with more students waiting to join.
A new Radio JOVE telescope, christened RISE (Rural Institute for Space Sciences and Engineering), at Saint Francis University has not been tested in the field yet, but it was already introduced to 340 upper elementary and middle school children from nearby rural schools. The RISE telescope was part of Quantum Quest Fest, a three-day event designed to celebrate achievements in science and technology with local schools. This year, children from six schools came to the university campus to participate in a number of hands-on activities after they watched an animated educational movie Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey in a 3-D movie theater. Children learned about electromagnetic radiation and how light interacts with matter. During these activities they learned about radio waves, different types of radio telescopes and antennas, and of course about NASA’s Radio JOVE project.
Introduction:
We are the Pulsar Observation Group at the University of Virginia. Our
goal is to introduce students of all backgrounds to astronomical
research and teach skills that can be applied to a wide breadth of
STEM domains. We also aim to educate students on the history of
pulsars and associated research topics, such as gravitational waves
and radio astronomy.
Motivation
For the past few years, our club has worked solely on collecting and
analyzing data. Our goal in reaching out to the NASA Radio JOVE team
was to add a hands-on component to the club experience. Building a
dipole antenna would allow students to understand the technology and
physics used to collect data. This hopefully builds a firsthand
perspective to identify sources of error as well as areas of
improvement for cleaner and more sensitive data.
What did we do?
Over the spring semester we built and tested the Radio JOVE 2.0
telescope kit. To accomplish this, we secured permission to build the
telescope at Fan Mountain Observatory outside of Charlottesville,
Virginia. Before going out to the observatory, we worked in a lab to
teach some of the club’s underclassmen practical skills like how to
solder electrical connections, making power and signal transmission
networks, and verifying functionality with conductivity tests. They
also learned the science behind how a dipole picks up electromagnetic
signals. We then went to Fan Mountain Observatory and installed the
radio telescope. In April, the club took trips to our radio
telescope, about once a week, to take data and introduce our members
to analyzing data sets.
Building experience
Once we received the radio telescope kit, we used the building process
as an opportunity to teach underclassmen. Before going on site, we
spent two weekends testing the receiver and fabricating the
instrumentation. We had one team work on putting together telescope
parts and another team go through the receiver and software setup
manual and compile feedback. Both teams were led by executive members
of the club—our building experience was completely
undergraduate-run.
Observing experience
We spent three Saturdays observing with our telescope at Fan Mountain
Observatory, each time for a little over one hour. Our goal was to
allow different members to join us and see how real data was
collected—we walked underclassmen through the Radio-Sky Spectrograph
software and how we set everything up to collect data. We include
below a figure presenting one hour’s worth of raw data taken on April
9.
What did we learn?
We gained valuable experience with the hands-on building of the Radio
JOVE 2.0 telescope and working with electrical equipment, explored
some cool aspects of electromagnetic radiation and how it can be
measured using a dipole antenna, and the overall process of scientific
data collection. Communicating with the Radio JOVE team and the UVA
Astronomy department gave us insight into how scientific
collaborations operate. To obtain permission to set up our telescope
on Fan Mountain, we created a proposal detailing what we planned to do
and our timeline for completing our goals and presented it to the
Astronomy department’s Observatory Committee—this was our first time
putting together a formal presentation as a club, and it ended up
being a great learning experience for us all.
Statement on usefulness (why the kit is a good educational
product):
We think that Radio JOVE is great because it’s a reasonably accessible
way to take real astronomical data. It’s something that can be set up
in a few hours with a little space and with a little configuration you
can start collecting radio data! It would be a great way to introduce
students to electromagnetic radiation and the different properties
that different wavelengths of light have. For example, it would be
great to show how the dipole can pick up radio waves even when it’s
cloudy or the sun is out. It would also be a useful tool for showing
students how scientific data can be collected and analyzed in a simple
way, going from detection by the dipole to the electrical signal to
the software where it can be directly seen. It would be a great
project to get kids outside, building, problem solving, and doing real
science!
Quotes from the team:
“It was a great learning experience shared with great friends.”
-William
“Working with the Pulsar Club on this telescope was a great way to get
outside, meet some upperclassmen and talk about physics, and do some
real science!” -Sam
“I’m really glad we were able to work on this very cool beta-testing
project with underclassmen! It was amazing that we were able to bring
together a group of physics, astronomy, engineering, chemistry, and
other STEM majors this semester.” - Jee-Ho
“This was an amazing opportunity! I loved going up the mountain where
we set up this telescope with friends from many backgrounds to collect
data. It truly gave me a taste of how interesting radio astronomy can
be.” - Louis Seyfritz
“My biggest takeaway was seeing how dedicated students from all
corners of STEM came together to make this effort possible. It
facilitated team bonding through tackling antenna construction and
allowed us to become more established among our local scientific
community.” -Zach
“The best part of building the radio telescope was interacting with the diverse community that the Pulsar Observation Group has been able to build in a new and unique way” -Jason Boynewicz
Under my Astrophysics professor, Dr. Kenneth Carrell’s advice and my interest in radio telescopes, we first found the Radio JOVE project last year. By the time we started the project with research funding in January 2022, the Radio JOVE 1.1 system was no longer available. Thankfully Dr. Chuck Higgins introduced us to the Radio JOVE 2.0 Beta version and allowed us to be a beta tester.
The package we received had everything except the pole masts. The manuals were highly detailed on the theory behind Radio JOVE and instructions on both installing the radio telescope and using the software. The only concern about the manual is that it was lacking data processing information. We have collected cool spectrograph data, but we did not know what was happening specifically. We had to contact Dr. Higgins for data from different telescopes on the same date, so we can compare and distinguish between local and global events. Also, even if we filter out global events, we did not know how to specify them, so we used data from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) and Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) to confirm solar flare activity. If there were added calibration processes for other activities, it would be more helpful.
For the pole mast, the manual says the budget will be $70~100, but this was off by a large amount. We bought all the materials from Lowes and Home Depot, and the total was ~$200. Thankfully we had extra budget from the money saved from the lower cost of the newer version.
We first tried installing the radio telescope inside a building close to the window. However due to all the interference in the building, we couldn’t get any useful data.Then, we installed the telescope outside in a field for 2 hours. Unfortunately, we could not get any distinguishable solar activity. But we got “sweeper” signals periodically, so we knew it worked.
The reason that we only ran for 2 hours is that it was really hot, and we didn’t want to keep the radio telescope and the laptop outside in public for too long. So, we decided to install the telescope on the rooftop of a building we had access to and hold the masts upright using cinder blocks. We could not avoid the interference coming from the building, but it allowed us to take data for a much longer duration.
With one full day of data collection on April 21st, we could not specify much, but we captured solar flare activity. The reason that we are sure that this is a solar flare is that while taking data, we also were watching spectrographs from other telescopes from different locations, and they also had strong signals. Also, later when we checked X-ray data recorded from GOES, there was a high signal of solar activity in that timeline. There were other activities recorded on GOES that did not register on our telescope, and we think the reason is because they are much stronger signals, and may not have energy in the spectrum that our telescope can detect (radio waves are much lower energy than x-rays). To minimize local interference, we only used the bandwidth of 19.990-19.995 MHz and 20.005-20.010 MHz, because they are small gaps allocated as “Space Research”, so, according to the US Department of Commerce, they are radio, mobile, and military signal free.
So, we have recorded the Sun and its solar activity, but not Jupiter or the Milky Way. Or maybe we do not know how to distinguish them in our data. But we consider our work a success - the purpose of our Radio JOVE project was to create and test a radio telescope in an easy and affordable way. Installation was a two-man job, but it was not difficult, and with a total cost of ~$400, it is much cheaper than Arecibo Observatory.
Thank you, Dr. Higgins, for supporting us with this project.
The Radio JOVE community is deeply saddened by the loss of one of our projects great supporters, Bill Lord of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA). In particular, Bill and his wife Melinda led the SARA grant program which allowed underrepresented schools and individuals from around the world to take part in learning science by building and operating their own Radio JOVE kits. Bill will be remembered for his dedication, friendship and fellowship to the members of the Radio JOVE program.
The next Jupiter observing season will start in late May 2022 and run through late December 2022. The diagrams below explain how this Jupiter observing season comes about. Jupiter emission varies smoothly from quite strong during opposition to very weak during conjunction. The dates given below are only rough guidelines to the part of the year in which watching for Jupiter is more profitable for an observer using the JOVE dual dipole array. It is possible to observe stronger Jovian emission weeks or months into the off-season if the emission power is high enough to make up for the added propagation distance, thicker terrestrial ionosphere, and increased daytime terrestrial band noise. Such occurrences are rare. Increased antenna directivity can extend the length of the useful observing season by bringing weaker point-source Jovian signals further above the whole-sky-source galactic background and terrestrial interference. |
|
| View from North Ecliptic Pole |
View Looking Toward Southern Horizon |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| A table of Jupiter observing season dates from 2010 through 2060 and plots of Jupiter's elongation from 2007 through 2054 are available at the Radio JOVE web site here: https://www.radiojove.net/SUG/#eph |
|
Radio JOVE team member Larry Dodd live-streams his radio spectrograph data and audio on YouTube. The spectrograph data come from an SDRplay radio operating over the 16 – 24 MHz frequency range. The audio is streamed from an original Radio JOVE receiver at 20.1 MHz. See and hear his live data here: https://youtube.com/channel/UCtawz3MnMBwjz9ShhSC0ygQ/live
Larry’s live-streamed data is very helpful to people to see/hear solar and Jupiter radio bursts that don’t have their own equipment. Also,
it is a great way to verify your own data with other results. As
evidence of that, here is a testament from J. A. Jimenez from
Spain:
“I want to thank Larry Dodd for the opportunity to access his radio spectrograph on YouTube. Our students at AstroLab (a Spanish Online Astronomy School) can now look for Jupiter Radio Emissions as a science project for class. We tried to do this with other online SDR receptors without results. Now they have found Sun and Jupiter activity.”
Enjoy this great resource and don't forget to Like the page!
The JOVE Bulletin is published twice 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:
or
