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P. Pratap, J. A. Ball, A. E. E. Rogers (MIT Haystack Observatory)
The Small Radio Telescope (SRT) was developed at Haystack Observatory with support from the NSF. The telescope consists of a 7.5-m antenna with a 1.4-GHz receiver system. It is available as a low-cost kit through Cassi Corp. (http://www.cassicorp.com/). We describe a project to develop a simple adding interferometer with two SRTs some 55 m apart. We describe the technique used and the hardware needed to reproduce our experiment. Interferometer fringes from the Sun were compared with a simple model.
The SRT was developed as an educational tool to introduce radio astronomy and radio-astronomical observing techniques mainly at the undergraduate level. Supporting materials, such as an introductory radio-astronomy tutorial and a description of the SRT components and projects, were developed and are available on the Haystack Observatory web site(http://www.haystack.mit.edu/). This interferometer project provides the next step and introduces concepts of radio interferometry to interested students and faculty. A detailed description of the building of the interferometer will soon be available on the Haystack web site.