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索科罗,N.M. – 威尼斯人app下载 has added another exceptional instrument to the Etscorn天文台. 大学和 National Radio Astronomy Observatory held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new 射电天文学 facility Friday morning.

的 Etscorn天文台 is already among the most impressive student-run observatories in the nation, with nine fully-instrumented optical telescopes. 10英尺的收音机 telescopes add a new dimension to the facility’s capabilities. 这两个望远镜， which resemble satellite dishes, act in tandem to produce fringes – or radio images – of distant stars, galaxies and the nucleus of our Milky Way.  第三台望远镜 正在建设中.

“的 NRAO has been very generous with giving us observing time on the Very Large Array,” said Physics Professor Dr. 戴夫Westpfahl. “But they won’t let us take it apart. 与 this, students can take it apart and learn about the engineering behind 射电天文学, as well as do real interferometry.”

的 ribbon-cutting marked the official unveiling of a small new building where students have access to telescope controls and data storage. NRAO summer student Linnea Saby welcomed Tech’s top administrators, faculty members, Tech students and local children into the building to explain how the telescopes work.

“This is a unique instrument,” Saby said. “I’m really happy that we’ll be taking advantage 再说一遍. For a motivated, mathematical-minded student, you can really learn how to do 射电天文学 and interferometry.”

的 new instrument will be put to use immediately in labs that are required for students pursuing the Astrophysics Option with a Bachelor’s in Physics. 该设施还将 be available for astronomy outreach efforts to local school children and open to community members during star parties.

的 project was spearheaded by Lory Wingate, project manager at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory headquarters in Charlottesville, Va.

“This has been a passion project for me,” Wingate said. “I heard about this opportunity to enhance and expand science in January. It took a lot of sweat equity … now we have an excellent opportunity for students to add to their intellectual knowledge.”

Wingate organized two teams of students to refurbish the two radio telescopes that had fallen into disrepair and hadn’t been used in years. One team did preparatory work during the Spring 2016 semester in Virginia. 的 second team – led by Saby – has spent the past two months in Socorro getting the telescopes operational.

“This has been a great collaboration between 威尼斯人app下载 and the NRAO,” Saby said. “My hope is that NMT and the NRAO can coordinate the maintenance. 重点是 to keep this as an interactive museum exhibit.”

的 original two dishes were built in 2003 from kits designed at M.I.T. 他们是 initially damaged in the October 2004 hailstorm and suffered further over the years 从忽视. M.I.T. kits are no longer being made, so students relied on their ingenuity to refurbish the dishes. 的y will also have to build the third dish from 刮伤. Saby said 威尼斯人app下载 students and NRAO staff will collaborate to build the third dish over the next six months. 

Tech professors and NRAO project managers oversaw the work, but students did all the 举重. In addition to the NRAO summer students, numerous Tech students volunteered 来完成这个项目. Isaac Williams, president of the Tech Astronomy Club, organized volunteers and did a large amount of work to get the dishes operational.

的 ribbon-cutting also marked the unveiling of two other new instruments. 科技有 a new Radio Jove telescope from NASA, which is designed to study Jupiter, the sun and the galactic nucleus. 的 Society for Amateur Radio Astronomy donated another radio instrument, Super SID, which monitors the Earth’s ionosphere for signs of solar 耀斑.