PARI NAMES NEW BOARD MEMBER
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Citizen Scientist: Astronomy With the PARI 4.6-m Radio Telescope
The public is invited to explore the data archives of the 4.6-m radio telescope at PARI.
Teachers and students study physics and methods of research through radio astronomy observations using Smiley, the 4.6-m radio telescope at PARI.
A significant database of spectra, continuum, and map data has accumulated from users who control, in real-time, the PARI 4.6-m radio telescope through a web-browser. They have pointed the telescope at targets and mapped radio sources or taken spectra with a neutral hydrogen detector.
The goal of this citizen science project is to provide public access to the data from Smiley, with the intention to encourage national use through the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) infrastructure. By providing this access we hope to contribute a new, real-life interactive component to current NSDL digital educational resources.
-----> Click Here to BEGIN EXPLORING THE RADIO ASTRONOMY DATA <------
Brief Instructions:
After clicking to explore, an applet loads a new browser page with an Open frame in the foreground that allows users to select and open files. Files can be searched by username and the type of file can be selected from a list, as shown below.
Behind the Open frame is a Data Analyzer window which displays plots, data tables, and headers. The data analysis window determines which type of data it contains and displays the appropriate plot. The primary and extension header are displayed in separate windows. The data is displayed in tabular form in another tab. A plot is displayed above the table and header. Spectrum panels can also be clicked to show the frequency and intensity at different locations, as shown below.
Funding for this program is provided by the National Science Foundation, DUE 0937824 and supported a summer undergraduate intern who developed and wrote the JAVA applets used in this citizen science program.
M. Castelaz. 11/2010