Medicina Radio Observatory

Medicina Radio Astronomical Station
Organization National Institute for Astrophysics, Istituto di Radioastronomia di Bologna
Location Bologna, Italy
Coordinates 44°31′15″N 11°38′49″E / 44.52083°N 11.64694°ECoordinates: 44°31′15″N 11°38′49″E / 44.52083°N 11.64694°E
Website website
Telescopes
Northern Cross Radio Telescope transit radio telescope
32 m Dish single-dish movable radio telescope

The Medicina Radio Observatory is an astronomical observatory located 30 km from Bologna, Italy. It is operated by the Institute for Radio Astronomy of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) of the government of Italy.

The site includes a 32-metre diameter parabolic antenna for observing between 1.4 and 23 GHz and a 564 by 640 m, 30000 square meter multi-element "Northern Cross" antenna for observing at 408 MHz.[1] The 32-m antenna is used as a single-dish instrument for astrophysical observations (such as water and methanol maser spectroscopy), SETI experiments and radar monitoring of Near Earth Objects. In interferometric mode it functions as a VLBI station, part of the European VLBI Network (EVN).[2]

Northern Cross Radio Telescope

The Northern Cross Radio Telescope (Croce del Nord in Italian) is one of the largest transit radio telescopes in the world. Observations are focused around 408 MHz, corresponding to 73.5 cm wavelength with 2.5 MHz bandwidth. The telescope is steerable only in declination, meaning that it can solely observe objects that are culminating on the local celestial meridian.[1] The telescope consists of:

The resolution is around 4-5 arcminutes in the North-South direction, and 4 arcminutes in the East-West direction. While less than the resolution of large optical telescopes, the amount of radiation which can be gathered with the Northern Cross is much greater, proportional to the mirror surface of 30.000 square meters. This allows to the identification and measurement extremely faint sources, making the telescope is particularly suitable to extragalactic researches.[1]

There are plans upgrade of the E/W arm telescope to a LOFAR SuperStation.[3] The Cross is currently used as a pathfinder for the Square Kilometre Array.[4] The work is focused on studying the amplification and filtering of signals between the LNA (Low Noise Amplifier) output and the ADC (Analog to Digital Converter) input for the SKA. The Medicina Radio Observatory is studying all problems related to "antenna array implementation" through a prototype installation called MAD (Medicina Array Demonstrator).[5] The observatory staff have also built new receivers demonstrators for the SKA called BEST (Basic Element for SKA Training), which were subsequently installed in place of 8 of the 64 reflectors of the North-South section of the Northern Cross telescope.[6]


See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Description". Medicina Radio Observatory. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  2. ↑ "Home page". Medicina Radio Observatory. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  3. ↑ "Electromagnetic development of broadband antenna feeding arrays for the Northern Cross Radio Telescope" (PDF). IEIIT-CNR. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  4. ↑ "SKA Activities". Medicina Radio Observatory. Retrieved 2015-04-30.
  5. ↑ "Technology Developments". IRA-INAF. Retrieved 2015-05-02.
  6. ↑ "Reciever Design and Development". IRA-INAF. Retrieved 2015-05-02.

External links