ONLINE – General Meeting – March 2021

6:30 pm – Main Public Presentation

Title:  Tuning into the Radio Universe

Speaker:  Ardis Herrold works as the Education Specialist for Vera C. Rubin Observatory, (formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, and being built in Chile to survey the night-sky with unprecedented depth and detail). A lifelong amateur and educator, Ardis established and advised a high school club, the Radio Astronomy Team (the RATs) for nearly three decades at Gross Pointe North High School in Michigan, where she taught. She and many of her former students have a long-established relationship with the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, home of the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope.

This talk will provide a brief introduction to how radio telescopes operate, what sort of observations can be made with them, and the advantages and disadvantages of radio observing. Amateur astronomers can build and operate radio telescopes. Ardis will look at some of the different types of radio telescopes that can be constructed, and what resources are available for those interested in learning more or getting started in radio astronomy.