The web page is here: https://www.pictortelescope.com/
On the webpage you will find all the information necessary to do a radio reading similar to that I will document below.
Using the scope I have done a reading to detect the 21 centimeter hydrogen line present in our Milky Way.
From Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_line#In_radio_astronomy
Further reading links can also be found on the Pictor radio telescope web page.
For the layman like myself this all means that we are able to detect the arms of the Milky way using the 21 centimeter hydrogen line and map the shape of the spiral arms and our galaxy.
Pictor radio telescope allows us to make these reading for ourselves.
The Pictor webpage recommends making two reading knows as the "On/Off" technique.
The radio telescope is in Athens and pointed directly at Zenith.
So in order to conduct my "Off" reading I needed to choose a time frame when the plane of the milky way is off beam.
My "Off observation was done on the July 18 2019 at 17H49.30(UTC +3).
Below is a screen shot from SkySafari showing Zenith in Athens at the same date and time as the "Off" reading. As you can see the plane of the Milky way is completely of beam(About a 9 degree circle around Zenith).
And here are the technical details that I received from the Pictor radio telescope when doing the "Off" reading.
Your observation has been carried out by PICTOR successfully!
Observation name: King 3 Off 18 July 2019.
Observation datetime: 2019-07-18 17:49:30 (UTC+3)
Center frequency: 1420000000.0 Hz
Bandwidth: 2400000 Hz
Sample rate: 2400000 samples/sec
Number of channels: 2048
Number of bins: 1000
Observation duration: 1500 sec
Observation ID: 46875938
Your observation's averaged spectrum, dynamic spectrum (waterfall) and Power vs Time plot are attached in this email as an image.
And then the image with the plots.
Comparing this image to those on the Pictor web page this is a good "Off" reading.
In the plot you can see three evenly distributed peaks in a wavy pattern.
Now the screen shot from SkySafari showing the time and date of the "On" reading, the plane of the Milky way is arching through the Zenith here and should allow us a good "On" reading.
Then here are the details for the "On" reading.
Your observation has been carried out by PICTOR successfully!
Observation name: King 3 On 23 July 2019
Observation datetime: 2019-07-23 10:53:56 (UTC+3)
Center frequency: 1420000000.0 Hz
Bandwidth: 2400000 Hz
Sample rate: 2400000 samples/sec
Number of channels: 2048
Number of bins: 1000
Observation duration: 1500 sec
Observation ID: 41118127
Your observation's averaged spectrum, dynamic spectrum (waterfall) and Power vs Time plot are attached in this email as an image.
Below is the "On" reading.
As you can see there is now and additional peak at the 1420 Hz line, it is also clearly evident on the waterfall.
So we have now detected the 21 centimeter hydrogen line and a arm of the Milky way using the Pictor radio telescope!
Here is a GIF that illustrates the differences more clearly between the two ot images.
Here is a GIF that illustrates the differences more clearly between the two ot images.
This was a super fun exercise that can be done by anybody with a internet connection and a is great way to do some introductory radio astronomy observations, all absolutely free on the Pictor radio telescope.
My thanks to the folks at the Pictor radio telescope for making this resource available for us to use.
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