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
