PrimaLuceLab Team installed a custom version of the ASTRO-RES Observatory Station in University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy): a turn-key astronomical observatory with Officina Stellare RiDK400 telescope, 10micron GM3000 equatorial mount, ScopeDome 3Mv3 dome, EAGLE remote control and power unit, ESATTO robotic focuser and GIOTTO smart flat field generator with ALTO telescope…
PrimaLuceLab team completed the installation of SPIDER 300A advanced radio telescope near Sardinia Radio Telescope, the wonderful 64 meter diameter single-dish radio telescope located in San Basilio, in southern part of Sardinia (Italy). Operated by INAF Italian National Institute for Astrophysics and ASI Italian Space Agency, SRT is used for radio…
What are the results you can record with a radio telescope? In this article you can see spectra, cross-scans and radio maps you can record with SPIDER radio telescopes. When we record a picture of an Universe object, we usually use a digital camera that has many pixels (typically several millions). This way, when we record the picture, the light we receive “lighten” many pixel at the same time and each pixel records light coming from different sky areas. But, when we use radio telescopes, we record the signal from a single area of the sky (only large professional radio telescopes may have more LNA units), just as if our camera had only one pixel.
Kielder Observatory, a public astronomical observatory providing great outreach activities, now has also a SPIDER 500A radio telescope for radio astronomy to let visitors experience the cosmos even in daytime or in typical UK cloudy conditions. PrimaLuceLab Installation Team completed the installation of the 5 meter diameter instrument with receivers,…
Cassiopeia A it’s an important object for radio astronomy, a supernova remnant located in Cassiopeia constellation with a flux of 2400 Jansky at 1420 MHz. For this article we used the SPIDER 300A radio telescope that, thanks to the 3 meter parabolic antenna with high precision WP-100 mount, high sensitivity H142-One receiver, and the advanced features of the RadioUniversePRO software, is able to detect Cassiopeia A. The radio telescope is connected to the remote control room by using the Radio over fiber kit for SPIDER radio telescope that removes the normal gain loss because of cable length and improve even more performances of the radio telescope.
The Sun is one of the most interesting radio sources in the sky and solar radio emission can be studied by using SPIDER radio telescopes. The Sun not only emits visible light but also other frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum, in fact you can feel the Sun heat on our skin, expression of infrared radiation. In this article with step-by-step guide, by using a 3 meter diameter SPIDER 300A radio telescope, we see how to detect radio waves coming from the Sun and generate various results (like radio images and transits) by using the RadioUniversePRO control software. We perform automatic pointing and tracking on the Sun, detection and removal of eventual artificial signal and capture of results.
PrimaLuceLab Installation Team just upgraded the SPIDER 300A radio telescope installed in Medicina radio telescopes Visitor Center! Originally installed in 2018, the SPIDER 300A now has a new antenna, a larger and more precise mount (new design with electronics and cables integrated in the mount head) and new receiver and…
Astrophotography allows to record great pictures of the Universe: from the planets to the Moon, from galaxies to nebulas, from the Sun to star clusters. Astrophotography of some objects may be simple while for others, especially because of their low brightness, it’s more difficult and may require special instruments and techniques. Thanks…
PrimaLuceLab Team completed the installation of a new SPIDER 300A, the 3 meter diameter compact radio telescope for 1420 MHz radio astronomy, in University of Lincoln (UK)!
Radio interferometry is an advanced technique, developed by professional radio astronomers, that allows to use many smaller antennas instead of a too large one. In fact, when we think of a radio telescope, we imagine an instrument of enormous dimensions, equipped with a very large parabolic antenna that collects radio waves coming from space. By using many compact radio telescopes, radio interferometry improves results in radio astronomy research and allows the use of more affordable radio telescopes. For example, by using this technique the Event Horizon Telescope (an international collaboration of multiple radio telescopes from all over the world) recorded, in April 2019, the first radio map of a black hole inside the M87 galaxy, with an incredible resolution of 25 microarcseconds!
