Photos from the 2003 East Tennessee Collegiate Division Meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science held at Pellissippi State Technical Community College
4/11/2003
Erik Gern, Roane State Community College
ABSTRACT
Remote Operation of the MIT Haystack Radio Telescope
The 37m Haystack radio telescope located at the MIT facility in Cambridge, MA, has been used by students at RSCC to obtain plots and characterize emissions from selected distant sources of radio energy. These sources are caused by a wide variety of interstellar phenomena, across a range of frequencies from 22 to 44 Ghz.
These observations may be grouped in the following areas:
Cygnus X
Mapping of w75N and G31 star-forming regions
Mapping of R-CAS, a red giant
Imaging the passage of Saturn across Messier object M1 (the Crab nebula).
This work is of interest because it demonstrates the ability to remotely control and gather data using the Haystack radio telescope, it shows the ability of RSCC students to contribute to a radio-source mapping project, and it demonstrates the ability to track and observe a planet across a large radio source.
