Backyard Radio Telescope
A homemade 21cm hydrogen-line radio telescope built from off-the-shelf RF parts to map the Milky Way from my back garden.
I'm building a 21cm hydrogen-line radio telescope from scratch — a dish, a low-noise amplifier chain, and an SDR — to detect neutral hydrogen in our galaxy and slowly map the rotation of the Milky Way from my back garden.
Why
Radio astronomy always felt like something that lived in giant observatories, not backyards. It turns out the hydrogen line at 1420 MHz is loud enough that, with patience and a carefully tuned RF front end, you can pick it up with gear that fits on a workbench.
Where it stands
- Dish and feed assembled and roughly aligned.
- LNA and filter chain characterised.
- Working on integration time and calibration to pull the signal out of the noise floor.