Fw: Potential Radio Telescope

[Dr. Rich Russel]

All,

Please provide Gary some guidance.

Thanks!

Rich

gary.n...@oicbrighton.com

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Dr. Rich Russel <drrich...@netscape.net>

To: SARA Grant <gra...@radio-astronomy.org>

Sent: Friday, March 6, 2026 at 10:30:23 AM MST

Subject: Fw: Potential Radio Telescope

----- Forwarded Message -----

From: Gary Newport <gary.n...@oicbrighton.com>

To: drrich...@netscape.net <drrich...@netscape.net>

Sent: Friday, March 6, 2026 at 05:20:47 AM MST

Subject: Potential Radio Telescope

Dear Dr Russel

I apologise for emailing randomly but I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.

I work at a school in the UK and we have secured funding for a radio telescope. Originally I had mentioned a 5 metre dish but the funding is not sufficient to secure such a set-up.

Therefore, in line with a discussion with a supplier, we are considering a 3.7 metre dish with L-band support. I have also asked for additional 6.7 GHz support within the quote. From my limited understanding, any other bands would likely not produce good results since we are within 2 miles of a large city (Brighton) and have phone masts, etc everywhere. The cost to return is not likely to be a good balance.

The company will supply us with the dish, a concrete mount, all power and a control room.

My understanding is that with this size of dish we should be able to track solar bursts, pulsars, thermal emissions from the Moon, Milky Way spiral arm mapping through the 21cm Hydrogen emission line, detect methanol masers and radio bursts from Jupiter.

Am I correct in my thinking here? What might you suggest I think about or ask the supplier; or insist are in place?

Sorry, but I realised, once someone had put in a bid for this, that I am slightly alone here and tackling questions I can only pose to the supplier - not something I like to have as my only option.

Gary Newport Teacher of Computer Science

 

OIC Brighton Ovingdean Hall, Greenways, Ovingdean, Brighton, BN2 7BA, UK

 

oicbrighton.com

 

Nord Anglia Education | International Day & Boarding Schools

[fasleitung3]

Hi Gary,

As a quick first response here is my view of what can be done with a 3.7-m dish and some things to consider:

Observing the hydrogen line and mapping the milky way is one of the prime things which can be easily done with a dish of that size.

The thermal (and non-thermal flares) from the sun are also very well within the capability.

Some of the strong continuum radio sources such as Cassiopeia A and Cygnus A will require some effort but will be doable.

Thermal emssion from the moon is a bit weaker than the sources just mentioned but in the realm of possibilties. The same applies to the crab nebula.

Radio bursts from Jupiter are better observed in a different frequency band. A 3.7-m dish in L-Band is not the best option.

Pulsars: Yes, the strongest pulsar can be observed with a dish of that size, but it very much depends on the bandwidth and the backend. I will talk about that down below.

It has been demonstrated that the hydrogen emisson from other galaxies such as M33 and M31 can be observed with a dish of that size. It is not easy and requires a certain observing technique.

If your system supports 1.6 GHz besides 1.4 GHz, the strongest OH-masers are also observable. Weak, but doable.

I have no hands on experience with Methanol masers at 6.7 GHz. However, some are very strong and should be observable. My experience with Methanol masers is at 12 GHz but this is with a larger dish.

That brings up the question of higher frequency bands (above 6.7). The strongest source are water masers at 22 GHz. The dish design and the tracking accuracy has to have tighter tolarances. As you pointed out, this may not be worth the effort. However it is worth noting that water masers have successfully been observed with dishes of just a bit above 1m.

One of the things you have not mentioned but which is of great importance is the receiver frontend (in particular the low noise amplifier) and the backend, i.e. the reciever and software. Depending on what observations you want to do, the eqipment needs to enable that. In particular, when you want to do pulsar observations, you will need to have a large bandwith and high time resolution of your backend.

I hope this helps as a first comment.

Best regards,

Wolfgang

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[andrew....@googlemail.com]

I would recommend starting with hydrogen line as highest output for low-ish effort, and you can use the equipment to map the Milky Way in 2D and 3D and weigh the Milky Way too, and also demonstrate dark matter. Gives a WOW! Factor to the radio astronomy – a group of interested kids could run a mapping project over a few months and then create a wall display for everyone to see and perhaps you could ask BAA Radio Astronomy Group whether they could present at one of our day conferences or similar (subject to approval – I am not the director so not up to me but I know they are keen to support such things) or we could find another way to highlight the work of your students and encourage them to continue their science journey.

 

Andy

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