Abstract Details

Name: Harsha Avinash Tanti
Affiliation: IIT Indore
Conference ID: ASI2020_425
Title : Development on an Instructional Radio Interferometer at IIT Indore
Authors and Co-Authors : Harsha Avinash Tanti, Nikita Rathod, Siddharth Malu, Abhirup Datta
Abstract Type : Poster
Abstract Category : Instrumentation and Techniques
Abstract : Radio Astronomy instrumentation requires radio frequency (RF) expertise, in order to assemble functional radio telescopes that can be operated and maintained by educational institutions. Recent advances in open-source hardware designs and software tools have made it possible for small groups of astronomers and engineers, with a working knowledge of analog and digital instrumentation fundamentals to assemble small-scale radio telescopes. We present initial results from tests of a small (4-element) interferometer assembled at IIT Indore for this purpose. The interferometer operates at 1.4 GHz and has a bandwidth of 100 MHz. The four antennas are feedhorns, with a ~25-degree field-of-view. Front-end electronics consists of room-temperature low noise amplifiers (LNAs), with a 100 MHz bandwidth bandpass filter. Backend electronics consist of a heterodyne receiver, which provides an IF centered at 140 MHz, and a bandwidth of 100 MHz. The digital backend consists of an FPGA-based electronics board (with 2 ADCs, each with two inputs) designed by the CASPER community, which enables reconfigurable hardware design through a visual programming platform. We show results from tests of the interferometer, conducted using a broadband noise source, and the sun. The results confirm that the interferometer yields fringes as expected, and can be used to make drift-scan images of the sky.