Mapping the Radio Sky

Hi all,

I've just registered in the forum and trying to understand how it works ;-)

I'm trying to test (to destruction) our sky mapping system for the 7-metre radio telescope. We're making it update live each time anybody makes an observation (we like to be ambitious). Should mean you'll be able to see progress in real-time as we see the invisible made visible!

Anyway it seems to be more or less working now so I'm intending to publish the instructions for you to start getting involved yourselves this week.

Bear in mind this is all live science. We've not tried it before with this telescope system - so expect the unexpected, I'm looking forward to seeing what we get and discussing it with you here.

I'll post messages here and Mike Shaw will contact people direct if necessary once we're up and running.

Also if you've heard of twitter you might want to check out our twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/jodrellbank - 64,000 followers and growing.

All the best,

Tim

p.s. thanks to Christine Jordan who works with me on the software for controlling the telescope.

If youre trying to test stuff to destruction, just give it to a set of kids =) We always know how to test stuff properly...

Im just checking the site out now, but having it live sounds like a great idea! Good work and can't wait to start...

Thanks Tim. That is really impressive

Bill

For Mark.

How right you are. I know some military equipment suppliers who believe that the best field test for a tank would be to put it in a school playground!

Bill

That would be soo cool!!

Im assuming no live ammo =)

For tob, anymore news about a release date?

Hi all

You can find instructions on how to do your observations on the Radio Observations section of the website.

You will receive an email from Mike S with username/password and which direction to point the telescope in (crucial I know!).

As soon as you've got that, get going, and I'll jump in and explain things and solve problems as we go.

I've got my WD40 ready to spray on the telescope so fingers crossed...!

All the best,

Tim

Now that parts of the sky are being given out to schools involved, how do we know which parts of the sky haven't been scanned yet as the orange graphic on the university website isn't very precise. Is there some sort of list with coordinates that need scanning yet?

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/distance/observatory/data/eos-radiosky.html

Use that link and it shows you a map of the scans that have been done.
That x-axis on that graph is the galactic longitude co-ordinate that you need to do the EOS scan with. The latitude is 0.

Find a gap, look down at the x-axis and work out what the Longitude of that gap is and scan it.

ie, 200,0 has been scanned, but 198,0 to 190,0 haven't.

Hi

Yes I'm afraid looking at the orange image is the only way of doing it easily. Remember there is a scan every 2 degrees so it should be relatively straightforward to see which scans are missing.

After Friday 24th April there will be a free-for-all to fill in all the blanks!

Then we will look in more detail at the image and follow-up on a few of the interesting objects we've revealed, including some live opbservations with the Lovell Telescope!

Cheers
Tim