Category: Science Notices

Colorado Springs Cool Science Festival

Cool Science Festival Presentation on Saturday October 11, 2020

Rich Russel made an online presentation at the Cool Science Festival. The presentation covered the science of radio astronomy and the accomplishments of the Deep Space Exploration Society. The presentation was streamed live on Facebook and Youtube. You can watch the presentation here:

Carnival Day 2020: DSES – Finding Pulsars Using Radio Astronomy (3:50 pm)

Astronomer Rich Russel from the Deep Space Exploration Society describes how he uses the 60-foot Plishner radio astronomy dish antenna 90 miles southwest of Colorado Springs to detect pulsars in deep space.This live-stream presentation was part of our virtual Cool Science Carnival Day for kids, the main event of the 2020 Colorado Springs Cool Science Festival. You can find more information at:https://www.coolscience.org/carnivalday.html

Posted by Colorado Springs Cool Science Festival on Saturday, October 10, 2020

This 8-day regional event, designed to ignite wonder and inspire curiosity about the world around us, attracts between 10,000 and 20,000 attendees each year. For more information about the Cool Science Festival go to:

http://www.coolscience.org

First Light of DSES 9-Foot Dish Antenna at Rich Russel’s Home

by Dr. Rich Russel, DSES Science Lead

Part 1 – September 2, 2019

Ray Uberecken came over today with another LNA, which we put in series with the first LNA. This did the trick and overcame our cable loss problem. I conducted a small drift scan across the galactic center at -32 Declination. Here is a quick result.

I will spend the next couple of days fine tuning the azimuth pointing and weatherizing the LNAs.

I will forward information to allow certain members teamviewer access if they want.

Thanks Ray and Steve Plock for their technical support!!

Part 2 – September 4, 2019

The 9 ft dish at Dr. Russel’s house is operational!
It is set up to collect neutral hydrogen frequencies at 1420.406MHz.
Today the dish azimuth was aligned using the Sun and a level.

The receiver is a Spectracyber 1 from Radio Astronomy Supplies. 
Below is the measurement of the hydrogen spectrum near the galactic center.
RA 17hr 58min DEC -32 degrees

Training on the use of the system will be conducted at the science meetings.

Dr. Russel

New Milky Way H Map – Incredible Detail

Sky & Telescope has a short, illustrated news item today about high resolution 1H (atomic hydrogen) observations of our galaxy from Australia and Germany. It includes a video showing how the view changes with wavelength due to Doppler shift. I thought this would be good to share; this is what we’ll be looking for with the HI drift scans.

Astronomers Map Millky Way in Incredible Detail – Sky & Telescope

Read the Sky & Telescope article.

Pilsner 8/12-13/2016 Weekend Science Trip Projections

Data for the moon:
     date: 12 Aug            Rises: 15:32    Sets: 01:16 (13 Aug)
     date: 13 Aug            Rises: 16:25    Sets: 02:01 (14 Aug)
=============================================
Data for radio sources:
Data for Sgr-A (RA: 17h 47m   DEC: -28d 42m):
     12 Aug  21:17  ALT: 21.9deg  AZ: 180deg(meridian)
                             Rises: 17:04    Sets: 01:14 (13 Aug)
     13 Aug  21:21  ALT: 21.9deg  AZ: 180deg
                             Rises: 17:08    Sets: 01:18 (14 Aug)
Data for Cyg-A (RA: 19h 59.5m  DEC: 40d 44m):
     12 Aug 23:30   ALT: 88.3deg   AZ: 360deg(due north)
                             Rises: 14:41    Sets: 08:00 (13 Aug)
     13 Aug 23:34   ALT: 88.3deg   AZ: 360deg
                             Rises: 14:45    Sets: 08:04 (14 Aug)
Data for Cas-A (RA: 23h 23.4m  DEC: 58d 49m):
     12 Aug 02:50  ALT: 69.9deg  AZ: 360deg(due north)
     13 Aug 02:54  ALT: 69.9deg  AZ: 360deg
     NOTE: Cas-A is circumpolar and never drops below the local horizon.
Data for Tau-A (RA: 05h 34.5m  DEC: 22d 01m):
     12 Aug 09:00  ALT: 73.0deg  AZ: 180deg(meridian)
                              Rises: 02:01    Sets: 16:01
     13 Aug 09:04  ALT: 73.0deg  AZ: 180deg
                              Rises: 02:05    Sets: 16:05
Data for Vir-A (RA: 12h 30.8m  DEC: 12d 23m):
     12 Aug 15:54  ALT: 63.4deg  AZ: 180deg(meridian)
                               Rises: 09:26   Sets: 22:21
     13 Aug 15:58  ALT: 63.4deg  AZ: 180deg
                               Rises: 09:29   Sets: 22:25
Provided by WD0CUJ

Plishner Perseids Meteor Shower Expedition 12-13 August 2016

DSES will have its first major observing expedition at the Plishner site on 12 – 13 August in conjunction with the Perseid Meteor Shower.

The following radio telescopes will be set up for observing:
1) Hydrogen – on 60 ft dish using Ray’s new feed
2) Radio Jove
3) Meteor Scatter
4) SuperSIDS
5) Itty Bitty Telescope

Also a number of optical telescopes will be set up to watch the meteor shower + planet and star observations.
We are also trying to get a solar telescope to do some daytime observations.

Ham radio operators will use the new DSES Club call sign, K0PRT, to make radio contacts. We will have HF antennas plus SHF, UHF, and VHF using the 60 ft dish available.

The setup team will arrive about 1200 on the 12th and start observations around 1700 and throughout the night. Observers should bring thumb drives and observer journals.

Anyone participating should bring sleeping gear and food for the overnight event. The clearing next to the communications van will be available for camping or campers. Recommend anyone sleeping in the bunker bring a cot and sleeping bag.

The event will end at 1600 on 13 August.

Please RSVP to Rich Russel.

Rich
Dr. Rich Russel