Abby and Her Radio Telescope

This is Abby and she gave a talk tonight at our astronomy meeting.  She has been a member of our club for a while now.  She is a senior in high school AND is headed to UCLA for college next year, to study astronomy and astrophysics!  This is a radio telescope she built to receive transmissions from space of the 21cm. hydrogen line which is radiated by some astronomical objects.  She is amazing - last year she spent a week at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia where the largest steerable radio telescope is located!  That's where she got the idea to build this radio telescope.

She explained in her talk everything we would need to know to build both this "horn antenna" and the radio receiver underneath it, made from a 1 gallon can, containing some electronics!  This is amazing!  She got a great reception and much applause at the end.  What a wonderful project this is.