RADIO ASTRONOMY 2016

Exercise 1

Upload your solutions into MyCourses by Thursday, October 13th until noon. First exercise session
will be held on the same day, 14:15-16:00 at the Simulointilaboratorio, HTC. Otaniementie 19.

Problem 1.

Spherical astronomy

The following exercises intend to warm you up about the location (both relative and absolute) of
celestial objects to your position. This will be especially important when planning observations (and
probably in the exam). (hint: Identify your Zenith, the Celestial Equator, the cardinal points and the
definitions of the coordinates).

a) One of your friends told you in Vappu that he had seen during day time the star Schedar (α
Cassiopeiae, declination +56° 32′ 14.392″) in Helsinki (Latitude: 60°10′10″ N) from the bottom of
a deep lake. Could be this true from a geometric analysis? (As we know, in general, we cannot see
stars during the day from the bottom of a lake, even the radio telescopes do not behave that well
under the water). Feel free to use the provided graphic to do your analysis. 2p

b) An observer is located exactly in the tropic of Cancer. Your challenge is to determine the shadow
length produced by a tree which length is , that is completely vertical to the ground at the exact
moment of the equinox. 2p

c) Determine the right ascension and declination of the Sun on 30.03.2017. Consider that the March
equinox in Helsinki will be on 20.03.2017, and assume that the Sun moves uniformly in the ecliptic
at an average rate of 0.98 degrees/day. 2p

Problem 2.

Observations and visibility

You are invited to spend a weekend as an intern at La Silla Observatory in Chile. You will have the
opportunity to make observations at 90 GHz from 19.03.2017 and 22.03.2017 between 21:00 and 06:00
local time (UTC -4). From the old notes of your Radio astronomy course, you have an old list of
objects (table 1) and you are considering to use those sources during the weekend. If that the
observatory is located at a latitude 29°15′36″ S and a longitude 70°43′48″ W:

a) Can you observe all the sources listed in table 1? Please justify your answer with approximate
justifications. Make any necessary assumptions and explain them down. (Tip. Point 1c, can be an
ally for you). 3p
b) Considering the contacts you got during your Radio astronomy course, you are interested in making
observations during the same days at Metsähvovi Radio Telescope (latitude 60°13′05″ N and a
longitude 24°23′38″ E). Which of these sources can be observed in both observatories? Is it
possible to make any observation for any source exactly at the same time? Justify your analysis. 3p
 No Source RA. J2000 Dec. J2000
1 0235+164 02h38m38.93010s +16°36′59.2746″
2 NRAO 150 03h59m29.74726s +50°57′50.1615″
3 3C 273 12h29m06.69512s +02°03′08.6628″
4 1510-089 15h12m50.53292s -09°05′59.8296″
5 1610-771 16h17m49.2190s -77°17′18.424″
Table 1.

Problem 3

Solar physics

a) Describe briefly what is a solar flare. 1p

b) What are geomagnetic storms?. 1p

c) Explain the consequences of geomagnetic storms over Earth-orbiting satellites and

communications.1p

d) Solar flares are usually classified by their X-ray brightness, for instance, C-class type solar flares are
considered to be 'weak' when compared to X-class type solar flares. The latter ones are characterized by
their very strong X-ray emission which could cause strong geomagnetic storms.
This year on July 21st was registered a small C-class type solar flare. The maximum radiation
emission of this flare took place at 12:55 UTC. The pictures displayed below show both the sunspots
(2565, 2467, 2569) and a UV-band image, both images were taken by different instruments on space.

Figure 1. Solar sunspots observed by SDO/HMI Figure 2. Extreme ultraviolet image taken by the SOHO
continuum. satellite.
The Metsähovi Radio observatory often observes the Sun at 37GHz. Visit the website
http://www.metsahovi.fi/solar-gallery , identify a solar map on the day and time of the solar flare event.
Choose a picture, copy and paste it to your homework. Compare your 37 GHz solar map with the
pictures shown above. Do you find regions of large brightness? How does your solar map image
correlate with the images shown in figure 1 and 2?. Could you give a rough estimation of sunspots
locations on your solar map?. 2p

Problem 4

Single Dish Radio Astronomy

A student had the opportunity to observe a galaxy with the Onsala 20 m telescope. At 22 GHz the main
beam efficiency is ϵ M =0.61 and the aperture efficiency is η=0.55 .

a) Calculate the effective colleting area Ae. 2p

b) The unpolarized point source has a flux density of 5 Jy, calculate the temperature of the antenna. 3p