Site Engineering

Upcoming Activities

The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers will hold its 2020 Annual Conference on August 1-2, 2020 at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. This year the conference also will be completely carried virtually. Visit the website for more information. Coordinator for the conference is our own DSES Science Lead, Dr. Richard Russel. [Updated May 24, 2020]

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At this time we are holding our monthly meetings as virtual meetings. Our engineering meetings are normally held on the second Monday of each month. Our science meetings are held on the fourth Monday of each month. Start time is 5:30 PM. Email notifications are sent to members prior to the meetings. If you would like information to participate, please contact us at information(at)dses.science.

Work trips to the Haswell antenna site are generally scheduled for each third Saturday of the month, with weather alternates on Sunday. This third weekend was chosen because it comes between our engineering and science meetings. Having a regular date helps our members plan ahead, especially those who must travel long distances. During the Covid-19 pandemic, work and science trips may be coordinated for other times. NOTE: Please coordinate with us before you go to the Plishner site, information(at)dses.science.

News

SAFETY NOTICE: The railroad line which runs east-west next to Colorado Highway 96 is planning to restart operations sometime this year, in 2020. We routinely use several of the line road crossings when traveling to the Haswell antenna site. Please now use caution and watch for trains. Denver Post: “Tower Rail Line revs up for the real thing”

The notes and video of our Deep Space Exploration Society Science Meeting of May 25, 2020 are online. Meeting was hosted by Dr. Richard Russel. Meeting notes were by Bill Miller.

The minutes from our May 11, 2020 DSES Engineering and Operations Meeting is posted. Written by Bill Miller. The video of the meeting is also available. [Added May 16, 2020.]

For your information: PBS NOVA: Decoding Covid-19. About the unprecedented global effort to understand and contain the virus—and find a treatment for the disease. [53m 38s, aired May 13, 2020]

Bob Haggart has been continuing to improve the work space in the science trailer at the Plishner radio telescope site. His latest contribution is this new workbench and work area at the east side of the trailer. [May 13, 2020]

17th VLA Imaging Workshop Online Registration. This is the VLA imaging workshop Dr. Russel attended in the past and reported on. From the announcement: The Synthesis Imaging Workshop (SIW), in its 17th year running, goes virtual for the first time! The Virtual 17th SIW will be held on 29 June - 17 July 2020 and will be broadcast from NRAO, Socorro, New Mexico. The workshop will comprise of lectures on aperture synthesis theory and techniques, a set of practical tutorials demonstrating data collection, calibration, and imaging of various types of data, including new data from the Jansky VLA, ALMA and the VLBA, and extensive discussion sessions between participants and the lecturers. The workshop will be delivered at a level appropriate for graduate students in astrophysics. [May 13, 2020]

* * * First DSES Pulsar captured on the 60-ft dish by the observing team of Richard A. Russel, Ray Uberecken, Bob Haggart On May 2, 2020. * * *
By Dr. Richard Russel. Congratulations to the team! [May 8, 2020]

Our successful pulsar detection is mentioned in Neutron Star Group - A Collection of Information about Amateur Pulsar Detection. [May 14, 2020]

We have an updated post with notes about our DSES Science Meeting, April 27, 2020. The science presentation was led by DSES Science Lead Dr. Richard Russel. Meeting notes are by Bill Miller. [Updated May 3, 2020.]

Glenn Davis wrote an Update about the System 1 antenna control system for the 60-foot dish. [April 13, 2020]

Skip Crilly K7ETI made this updated presentation about the latest results from our joint observations for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) at HamSCI 2020: Synchronized Multiple Radio Telescope Microwave SETI, March 2020.

Website Update Notes

We created a separate, new Publications Page for all DSES papers published. You can retrieve each paper in PDF from that page.

Added April 27, 2020: Python Program for Mitigating Radio Frequency Interference Observed in SpectraCyber Receiver Drift Scan Data Files, by J. Ayres, Proceedings of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers 2020 Western Regional Conference, March 2020, pp.160-165, radio-astronomy.org.

Education Page

Link to Open Source Radio Telescopes (OSRT), a database and collaboration center for radio astronomy telescope construction at any level. - thanks to Skip Crilly.

Link to Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation. - thanks to Skip Crilly.

Links to educational videos: Relaxing Universe Sandbox ² gameplay | Journey to Betelgeuse and We are made of star stuff: Jocelyn Bell Burnell [Added May 15, 2020]

We started a section for Suggested Reading on the lower part of the page.

Current experiments now in progress at the Plishner Radio Astronomy & Space Science Center site in Haswell:

60-foot dish antenna:

Current main work with the 60-foot antenna is to develop our ability to detect pulsars. This includes being able to track (at this time manually tracking) on specific celestial coordinates. We succeeded in observing our first pulsar on May 2, 2020.

We are regularly using the 60 foot dish antenna for joint observing runs for SETI with Skip Crilly at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. These joint observations are discussed in several of Skip's presentation slides. Please see our presentations page.

Jupiter Radio Science Experiment "Radio Jove":
20.1 MHz monitoring of Jupiter and its moon Io, using a 2-element phased dipole antenna - currently down, pending repair of the receiver.

Experiments in Colorado Springs:

Drift scan survey of Milky Way of HI 1420 MHz spectral line.

Development of hardware/software and techniques for detecting pulsars.

Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance Monitor (SID):
- 25 kHz VLF Solar flare monitoring

More information about our currently running experiments