I started this project of building a radio telescope for a few reasons. The main motive behind it was that, with a regular telescope, you can see a vast number of things—stars, planets, asteroids, you name it—and it’s wonderful. With the telescope I use, you can connect a digital camera to it and take photographs of anything you see. But then I began to think and realized how much I actually can’t see. Think about it—astronomers don’t use visible light to detect most objects. They use radio telescopes because radio waves have a longer wavelength, allowing them to penetrate dense regions of gas and dust that block visible light. Radio telescopes make seeing the invisible possible, and I want to see the cosmos for all its glory.
How do you build a radio telescope in the first place? There are many ways to go about it, but for a smaller-scale one, you need a satellite dish like the ones you see on the roof of a building. For the one I am going to make, I am planning on making a stand for it that will allow the dish to rotate. That’s not the hard part, though; the hard part is creating the electronics that will allow the dish to move through the use of software. I’ll need some motors, circuit boards, gears, and many more.
Now, the software isn’t the hard part—it’s the hardware. I have never built anything electronic in my life except for a personal computer, which is not that big of a beast to take down, so I’m starting from the ground up. I bought a starter kit that includes a basic circuit board and many electronic components, so I can mess around and experiment by creating a vast number of things. The video below shows the first thing I have ever built with electronics: a light controlled by the push of a button. It’s not that big of a deal for some people, but for me, it was a huge turning point.
This really is a small step on a road longer than I’ve ever been on before. I won’t have this radio telescope done anytime soon, but I will focus most of my time and effort on it. I want to be able to see beyond what my eyes tell me is out there. I hope to have it done by the third quarter of my junior year, but hey, I have no idea what I’m in for. I just see the end goal and have decided to begin my odyssey. I guarantee that this won’t be easy, but if anything, that’s the fun part. I can’t wait to look back on this blog post in around a year and see how far I’ve come—from just one simple circuit to a full-blown radio astronomy observatory. So here’s to the journey ahead—one circuit, one challenge, and one discovery at a time.