SKAO Making Hydrogen Line (1420.405 MHz) Radio Telescopes from readily available household materials, seen at Astrofest 6 Feb 2025
I was very impressed with this very well developed project presented by SKAO on their stand at European Astrofest February 2025 in London, UK. Using items readily available in most households, they constructed cantennae and horns, and have presented this on their website.
.
SKAO Instructions for Table-Top Website:
https://skao.int/en/resources/outreach-education/ar-vr-fun-stuff
From the SKAO website above:
“The SKAO table-top radio telescope (TTRT) can provide a real-time radio astronomy observation of the Milky Way in less than one minute, by measuring the emission from hydrogen gas.
You can construct your own TTRT for less than £100 using this how-to guide containing build instructions and driver software.
The device replicates techniques used by astronomers to peer through clouds of interstellar dust and map the distant regions of our galaxy.
The TTRT can be used as a hands-on outreach tool to demonstrate both simple and more complex physics to all ages.”
The how-to guide from the SKAO website mentioned above can also be accessed on link below:
https://www.astronomy.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/SKAO-Table-Top-RT-How-to-Guide-acc-100225.pdf
.
Software for SKAO Table-Top Radio Telescope Project:
The project includes two pieces of software which the developers recommend users download:
- The SKAO TTRT interface runs on a programming language called Python (https://www.python.org/downloads/).
Download SKAO TTRT Interface by clicking on link below:
https://www.astronomy.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ska-tabletop-radiotelescope-refactor.zip
2.Table-Top Telescope Build Instructions and Driver Software.
Download Build Instructions and Driver Software using link below:
https://www.astronomy.me.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/TTRT_Soft.zip
.
Photos from SKAO stand at European Astrofest 2025:
