Research
Research
USU ‘s SPS chapter has been involved in two research projects since 2008, both funded by Sigma Pi Sigma Undergraduate Research Awards.
* In 2008-2009, chapter members designed and built a Tesla-coil speaker that was intended to be used to ascertain the effect of different gases on the spectral characteristics of tones excited by the coil flame.
Some group members are shown here:
The coil flame is shown here:
This engineering intensive project proved to be great training in designing practical electronics (see, our final report.)
* In 2010-2011, members are assembling a radio telescope to observe 1420 MHz radio emissions from various galactic and extragalactic sources.
The following are the team’s accomplishments as of June 2010:
* Dish refurbishment is complete. We are currently working on designs for mount to enable pointing the dish along the meridian for drift scan operations.
* We held a mini Radio Astronomy Workshop led by Dale Hooper (USU-SDL), a local amateur radio astronomer with a backyard setup using a refurbished C-band antenna similar to ours.
* Led by Thomas Martin, the team made a poster presentation about the project at the Zone 15 meeting in Pocatello on April 9-10. See below.
* We completed a thorough survey of available radio astronomy receivers, matched them against our project requirements and selected the SpectraCyber 1420 MHz Hydrogen Line Spectrometer from Radio Astronomy Supplies in Texas (cost: $2525.00 -- $525.00 from a donor). We've placed an order; these instruments are assembled from scratch and lead time is 2-3 months. We expect delivery in mid-summer.