Public Outreach Radio Telescope

Project Goal: Design an off-axis radio telescope, controlled with a graphical user interface, that allows operators to pinpoint large objects in the solar system.

The Steward Observatory sought a radio telescope that can be operated by students, faculty and the general public.

The team designed a 2.4 meter off-axis dish with a graphical user interface to control and operate the dish in a user-friendly manner. The telescope uses serial communication to activate the servo motors, which control the rotation of the dish antenna. A Python-configured GUI allows the user to simply input altitudinal and azimuthal coordinates to move the radio telescope. The dish panels were designed with Zemax to limit diffraction at the observation wavelength of 21 centimeters. The observatory’s new metal panel forming technology was used to meet curvature specifications across the aperture. A spider-arm truss structure holds the dish panels.

Numerous analyses on the dish and truss structure confirmed the radio telescope will not deform or collapse due to wind or gravity when located on the roof of the observatory.