[BAA-ebulletin 00614] 2011 BAA Radio Astronomy Group Meeting, Saturday 12th November

[BAA electronic bulletins service]

2011-09-24

The BAA Radio Astronomy Group will be holding a General Meeting on
Saturday 12th November at The Humfrey Rooms, Castilian Terrace,
Northampton, NN1 1LD. The aim of the event is to provide exciting
insights into the world of leading-edge professional astronomy and
enable amateur radio astronomers to share their work (and enthusiasm)
with those interested in all aspects of astronomy.

Highlights of the day include:

Prof Paul Alexander, Head of Astrophysics at the Cavendish Laboratory,
will be talking about the impressive new radio telescopes that are
currently under development, such as the Square Kilometre Array, and
its precursors ASKAP and MeerKAT.

Dr Ben Stappers, Senior Lecturer at Jodrell Bank, will be talking
about LOFAR - the first in a new generation of ‘software telescopes’
and will describe the technology that has gone into building the
telescope and present new commissioning results.

Dr David Morgan will give an introduction to radio sources, including
a discussion of radio spectra and the physics of generation, from
solar storms, through hydrogen line and other galactic emissions to
extragalactic radio sources and pulsars.

Tony Abbey will talk about his experiences of using the AMSAT-UK
FUNcube Dongle - an example of one of the new software defined radio
receivers.

Dr David Morgan will describe how the FUNcube Dongle raises the
prospect of amateurs being able to put together a low-cost radio
telescope.

Noah Hardwick from the Monmouth Science Initiative will talk about
Project STEP (Solar Terrestrial Environment Physics) describing this
Royal Society-funded project and the work carried out by students.

Martyn Kinder  My life with a Magnetometer or two! Come and hear about
Martyn’s experiences of using the SAM magnetometer and the new UKRAA
product.

Mark Edwards will describe his derivation of a simple model for the
ionosphere to explain the observed variation of received VLF signal
strengths.

Paul Hyde will talk about using commercial short wave receivers to
observe solar emissions, in particular his work at 38MHz.

John Cook will talk about the VLF observing programme and the the new
work being done in correlating SIDs against disturbances to the
magnetosphere.

Builder/Observer Pairing Scheme
We are considering setting up a Pairing Scheme, in which amateurs who
would like to make radio astronomy observations, but who do not want
to actually build the equipment, are paired up with a ‘builder’.
Builders are that group of people who love building equipment, but
who, as soon as they have finished, want to get on with building
something even better! We’ll be taking names of interested parties on
the day, and if there is enough interest from both sides, then hope to
facilitate the setting up of observer/builder teams.

As well as the above, there will be a variety of posters and
demonstrations covering various aspects of amateur radio astronomy.

A provisional program will appear at http://www.britastro.org/radio
from October. Please contact Karen.holland at xcam.co.uk to buy your
ticket.

Tickets are £15 (£12 for BAA members) and include buffet lunch and
morning and afternoon tea and coffee. Tickets without lunch but with
tea and coffee are also available at £10 and £7 respectively.

Pre-booking is advised due to the limited capacity of the meeting
room; potential attendees who do not have pre-booked tickets, should
contact the meetings organiser to establish if space is available
before setting out on their journeys.

Paul Hyde
Coordinator, Radio Astronomy Group