Re: minutes Physics Theorynet meeting September 24, 2022

[Ken Olum <kdo cosmos phy tufts edu>]

   From: "Taylor, Tomasz" <t taylor northeastern edu>
   Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2022 19:31:00 +0000

   Any ideas about radio telescopes?

We are building a radio telescope on the roof of our building.  The
present plan is a 3 meter dish.  We are hoping to have it in operation
by May, but there are several obstacles, mostly bureaucratic.  I applied
for funding for this equipment as part of a NSF grant, and while I got a
grant, they only funded 25% of what I applied for and I had to cut the
radio telescope.  We have funding from our department, which is
sufficient if nothing goes wrong, but if theorynet is prepared to
contribute something, that might be very useful.  The likeliest source
of financial trouble is if Tuftswith requires some additional work
(engineering studies, fencing, lightning protection, who knows?) and
decides to outsource that at our expense.

MIT is building a 5.5 meter radio telescope on top of the Green
building under the radome.  This is going to be a fine instrument.
Planning seems to be proceeding slowly there, but I don't think they
have financial issues.

Telescopes of this kind are operated remotely, so it is possible to do
classroom demonstrations just using a laptop and operating the telescope
over the net.

                                        Ken