BAA Radio Astronomy Group News

We now have a separate 'National Space Centre Special Interest Group' for those of you who would like to hear the day to day project chatter as we progress with the antenna restoration and spectrometer installation. Note that this is the low-level detail, and may not interest the majority - this is why we've split off a separate list, to cut down the Inbox noise! Just subscribe to:

http://britastro.org/mailman/listinfo/
rag_at_nsc_britastro.org

We are acutely aware that we may not be meeting everyone's RA needs! The development team are quite focussed on the hardware and software work. We'd like to do more astronomy-related activities, and maybe more beginner's projects, but we simply don't have enough volunteers. The group could be a lot more effective if we had more 'administrators', e.g. Secretary, Treasurer, meetings organiser, Circular Editor, and so on. If you feel you'd like to help, in whatever capacity, just let us know.

A few useful links:

• From Martyn Kinder
A *really* interesting collaborative project - very much along the lines of what we are trying to do. The Awesome link from this page downloads a very interesting but 26MB PDF.
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/

• From Alan Melia
An on-line book about microwave antennas
http://www.w1ghz.org/antbook/contents.htm

• From Jon McKay
A useful-looking synthesiser design & PCB 1-2GHz controlled from a parallel port
http://www.thegleam.com/ke5fx/synth/synth.html

• From Jeff Lichtman
A new Radio Astronomy book has been released by NRAO. "But it was Fun – The first forty years of Radio Astronomy at Green Bank".  http://www.gb.nrao.edu/epo/itwasfun.html

Would anyone be interested in buying this book if RAG negotatited a bulk order, to possibly reduce costs and simplify ordering? We currently have three people interested, still not really enough to justify our own pallet on a 747!

I encourage you all to make use of this list to communicate with your fellow members - that's the only way we know what's going on, and what you would like to see happen...

Laurence Newell
RAG Coordinator

I will endeavour to reply to RAG emails within three days of receipt. This is not always possible, owing to considerable amounts of correspondence - please be patient!

Personal Email: radiogroup at btinternet.com
RAG Email: radiogroup at britastro.org
Telephone +44 1473 635 461
Skype: laurence.newell
Web: http://www.britastro.org/radio/

RAG Email list:
http://britastro.org/mailman/listinfo/
radioastronomygroup_britastro.org

RAG at NSC list:
http://britastro.org/mailman/listinfo/
rag_at_nsc_britastro.org