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Affordable Astronomy using Horn Antenna

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Abstract

We have developed an affordable horn antenna at St. Stephen’s College, which has been used to perform various research-based activities in the college astronomy lab. In this article, we present three of our experiments performed in our undergraduate lab with respect to radio frequency interference in the campus and provide the relevant data. We also present and analyse our results for the 21-cm Hydrogen line emission data collected using our affordable horn antenna. In the third experiment, we study the radiation pattern of our horn antenna. The aim of the article is to present experiments to explore radio astronomy in the lab that can be done by undergraduate students with minimum cost.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Prof. Avinash Deshpande and Pavan Uttarkar for their constant support and the Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru, for providing us with the initial instrumentation to set up the horn antenna. The authors are also grateful to the Principal, St. Stephen’s College, for his encouragement and support by providing the facility and funds to conduct experiments. The authors are also grateful to the reviewer for very insightful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Stephen’s College, Sudhir Bose Marg, Delhi, 110007, India

    Nadia Makhijani, Udish Sharma & Geetanjali Sethi

Authors
  1. Nadia Makhijani
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  2. Udish Sharma
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  3. Geetanjali Sethi
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Nadia Makhijani, Udish Sharma or Geetanjali Sethi.

Additional information

Nadia Makhijani is a third-year student at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, pursuing a degree in Physics and plans to continue in the field of Astronomy.

Udish Sharma is a final year student of BSc Physics Hons at St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Geetanjali Sethi is an Associate Professor at the Department of Physics in St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and works primarily in Cosmology and Astrophysics.

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Makhijani, N., Sharma, U. & Sethi, G. Affordable Astronomy using Horn Antenna. Reson 29, 935–951 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-024-0935-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-024-0935-2

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