Site Engineering

Upcoming Activities

The next work and observing trip to the Plishner radio telescope site in Haswell will be the third weekend in October, 19th-21st, 2018. An observing team will arrive and work Friday evening, which is when the Milky Way will be high enough in the sky. Site maintenance work will be done on Saturday. That work includes installing a heater in the outhouse, and erecting more of the tower at the bunker. We plan to continue this pattern, of observing Friday evening, and doing engineering work on Saturday, for the third weekends of the months for the rest of the year: Nov. 16 & 17, and December 14 & 15. Also, work on the System 1 tracking system is tentatively scheduled of Sunday Oct. 21.

The next DSES Science meeting will be Monday, October 22nd, 5:30 PM, at the home of Dr. Richard Russel in Colorado Springs. Please contact us if you would like information to attend.

A work trip to the Plishner radio telescope site in Haswell is planned for Saturday October 27, 2018. Primary work activity will be on the ramp retaining wall by Dave Molter (POC).

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Work trips to the Haswell antenna site are now 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.

Our engineering meetings are held on the second Monday of each month. Members can participate remotely using Teamviewer. Our science meetings are held on the fourth Monday of each month. Start time is 5:30 PM. Please contact us if you would like information to attend.

News

The minutes from our Technical and Operations Meetings for September 10, 2018 and October 8, 2018 are now posted.

Slides from our Science Meeting on Sept. 24, 2018 are posted. The slides are Rich Russel's presentation about our 1420 MHz HI observations of the region around the galactic center done at the Plishner site the previous Saturday.

Our DSES Plishner Site Work Trip Report for September 14-16, 2018 is now posted. By Bill Miller and Gary Agranat. With photos.

* * Please see our Review of our Deep Space Exploration Society 2018 Perseid Meteor Shower Open House (August 11-12, 1018). We had a very successful weekend, with many science and social activities. Illustrated with photos. * *

Our post about our Radio Telescope Site Work & Science Trip – August 25, 2018 is now in our DSES Posts. It includes a discussion about follow-up observations made with the 60-foot antenna. And it includes the continuing infrastructure work we are doing before winter returns.

Greenbank & Haswell plots of simultaneous observation of NRAO 5690 on August 15, 2018. Observations by Steve Plock and Skip Crilly.

Dr. Russel's post Observations using the 60-foot Dish during the Open House, August 11, 2018

Website Update Notes

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

60-foot dish antenna:
[August 19, 2018] The 60 foot dish antenna is now periodically being used for joint observing runs for SETI with Skip Crilly at the Greenbank Observatory in West Virginia. These joint observations are discussed in Skip's presentation slides from the 2018 SARA Western Conference at Stanford. See the slides on our Publications Page, in the Science Section.

With the pointing systems and receivers now being validated, we also are starting to use the 60-foot dish antenna for detecting astronomical radio source objects and the Milky Way at 1.4 GHz. We currently are using a SpectraCyber 1420 MHz Hydrogen Line Spectrometer. And we are starting to try RASDR4 (Radio Astronomy Software Defined Radio). A 1.4 GHz feed designed by Steve Plock is at the focus.

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. [Aug. 18. 2018]

Experiments in Colorado Springs:

430 MHz drift scan

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

More information about our currently running experiments