Radio Astronomy, Technology, and the

Noisy World

Classroom Exercises in Radio Frequency Interference

What is radio astronomy?

The Radio Sky

The Optical Sky

PerseusAuriga

Taurus

Camelopardus

What emits radio waves?

Recipe for Radio Waves• Hot Gases• Spectral lines• Electrons and magnetic fields

Big Point:

Any accelerating charge emits radio waves!

Big Point # 2:

• Celestial Objects at Enormous Distances Appear “dim”

• 0.00000000000000000000000001 watt/m2/Hz !!

The Rest of the Story:

What else emits radio waves?

The Observatory in Green Bank

The Rest of the Rest of the Story

Satellites!

The GBT:

Why does it look so funny?

The GBTOctober,

1999