DSPIRA
Digital Signal Processing in Radio Astronomy (DSPIRA) is a project for teaching radio astronomy through the construction and operation of horn radio telescopes.
DSPIRA is an NSF Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) in Engineering and Computer Science Site at the West Virginia University Lane Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Watch this short video for a quick introduction to DSPIRA.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/mfUJNtRLFJY
This program provides teachers with training and materials related to radio astronomy. The culmination of this program are lessons and exercises designed by these teachers which describe all aspects of constructing and operating a radio telescope.
A horn telescope, which consists of 3 major parts: the antenna, the support stand, and the back-end electronics, is easy to build. The cost is only a few hundred dollars. This section provides detailed instructions for constructing a horn telescope.
The horn telescope uses digital signal processing (DSP) technology to operate, which requires proper software to use. This section provides information about computer hardware and software options and detailed installation instructions.
You’ve built a horn telescope. Now what? How do I set it up? How do I take measurements with it? No problem! This section provides detailed instructions for operating a DSPIRA horn telescope, including instructions for doing interferometry with two horns.
Activities using GNU Radio for digital signal processing.
The radio horn telescope can be used for basic observation and research that can be done by anyone from high school students to enthusiast hobbyists. The astronomy module explores the topics within astronomy that can be investigated using a horn telescope.
All of the modules are organised in this page:
These lessons are in the form of posts tagged according to user confort levels from teachers in schools to afficianados:
All of our offerings are here:
If you would like to contribute to your own radio astronomy lessons please follow these instructions and open a pull request:
Visit the forums to start a discussion:
Lightwork memo series: Many hands make light work
The LightWork Memo series is an informal series of numbered memoranda on topics related to Citizen Science with Radio Telescopes.
This series is intended to encourage the public in the United States, and throughout the world, to collaborate on the design, construction and operation of Radio Telescopes for the purpose of furthering science, engineering and education. The creation of a memo series is motivated by the success that a focused memo series can have on organizing design and construction of large astronomical facilities.
Request a Radio Telescope kit
If you are an educator or a community organizer enthusiastic about radio astornomy and are slowed down by access to equipment such as SDR dongles and 21cm LNAs you can fill out the following form to request a starter kit. We can ship them to you until supplies last. Please fill within the form your shipment details and your tentative plans or the work you have conducted with your students/community.
Form to Request a Radio telescope
This website is maintained by Anna Liberty who is not associated with West Virginia University.