Undergrad Can You Build Your Own Radio Telescope at Home?

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Building a homemade radio telescope is feasible, with resources available for enthusiasts, including a detailed overview article from Astronomy and a comprehensive 33-page PDF guide. The designs shared in the discussion highlight simple setups capable of observing celestial bodies like the Sun and the galactic plane. The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) offers a community for sharing knowledge and experiences in radio astronomy. Additional resources and examples of DIY projects can be found through various links shared in the conversation. Engaging in this hobby can lead to exciting discoveries and personal observations of the radio sky.
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Likes davenn, DennisN and Vanadium 50
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Vanadium 50 said:
Is a homemade radio telescope realistic?
 
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I'm pretty sure my buddy up near Ottawa has a setup. I visited it last year.

Ah yes...

http://www.ccera.ca/files/budget_radio_telescope.pdf
"We show two slightly-different designs for a simple, small, effective, radio telescope capable of observing the Sun, and the galactic plane in both continuum and spectral modes, easily able to show the hydrogen line in various parts of the galactic plane."

https://www.radio-astronomy.org/?fb...RkmeMt0zllGkHYNAeuq1Jv8ojly6clzPEguIAFsrIGEWU
"The Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA) is an international society of dedicated enthusiasts who teach, learn, trade technical information, and do their own observations of the radio sky."

http://www.ccera.ca/files/memos/
(Their published papers.)
 
Last edited:
UC Berkely, December 16, 2025 https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/12/16/whats-powering-these-mysterious-bright-blue-cosmic-flashes-astronomers-find-a-clue/ AT 2024wpp, a luminous fast blue optical transient, or LFBOT, is the bright blue spot at the upper right edge of its host galaxy, which is 1.1 billion light-years from Earth in (or near) a galaxy far, far away. Such objects are very bright (obiously) and very energetic. The article indicates that AT 2024wpp had a peak luminosity of 2-4 x...

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