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Radio Astronomy: Hydrogen Lines of the Milky Way

A very cool project by a group at the Petnica Science Center in Serbia shows you can listen to the atomic hydrogen emission spectra at 1420MHz (21cm) with an SDR, low noise amplifier, 1m (or thereabouts) parabolic dish, and elbow grease.








This spectral line is of interest to map out the hydrogen distribution in the galaxy, which helps scientists understand the origins and evolution of stellar phenomena: https://www.astro.umd.edu/~richard/ASTRO620/HI_dist_MW_Kerp.pdf


It looks like they were using a custom fabricated telescope mount to track the center of the galaxy, although I'm sure it's hard to miss in a dark sky.

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