The European Radio Astronomy club (ERAC) is
Europe's only group coordinating the work of
radio astronomers
Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming f ...
to jointly use
radio waves to study the
universe at
radio wavelengths. It was founded in 1995 by Peter Wright, who had the idea of writing a small
newsletter
A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of int ...
to the then only 15-strong radio
astronomy community in
Europe, which were up to this date linked only by letters. Today E.R.A.C. has over 350 members in 19 different countries with a proportional membership of professionals and
amateurs.
The European Radio Astronomy Club has its headquarters in
Mannheim,
Germany. The aim of the club to unite Europeans with a common interest in Radio Science. The main tool to do this is still a printed newsletter which goes out to all members. E.R.A.C. regularly holds an International Congress for
Radio Astronomy which is attended by scientists from all over the world. Meeting in 1997, 2000, and 2003 were held at the
Starkenburg Observatory
The Starkenburg Observatory (german: Starkenburg-Sternwarte) is an astronomical observatory in Heppenheim, Germany. It was founded in 1970, and currently has about 150 members.
The observatory was the venue for the 1997 and 2003 meetings of th ...
in
Heppenheim, before moving to the SRH University of Applied Science in
Heidelberg in 2006.
In 1997, the director of the
British Jodrell Bank Observatory met for the first time, the
executive director of the
SETI League.
The SETI League, Inc.
/ref> The result of this meeting was that SETI research was done for the very first time at Jodrell bank.
Institutes in Europe are thought to frown on amateurs with their backyard telescopes. This is in contrast with the situation in the United States; there, where amateurs had played such an important role in the birth of this new science, amateurs were tightly interwoven in all US radio astronomy work.
The 21 cm Hydrogen Line
In 1995, E.R.A.C. introduced the UEK21 converter design which allowed anyone to have an inexpensive unit able to detect the hydrogen line. Together with a shortwave receiver to get the needed IF gain and frequency selection and a homemade parabolic antenna
A parabolic antenna is an antenna that uses a parabolic reflector, a curved surface with the cross-sectional shape of a parabola, to direct the radio waves. The most common form is shaped like a dish and is popularly called a dish antenna or pa ...
, it is possible for, say, a Young Scientist of the Year Project to build a radio telescope. Very soon, this unit was used in Europe also for SETI research as well for Project Argus
Operation Argus was a series of United States low-yield, high-altitude nuclear weapons tests and missile tests secretly conducted from 27 August to 9 September 1958 over the South Atlantic Ocean. The tests were performed by the Defense Nucle ...
from the SETI League.
Listening to Jupiter with the shortwave receiver needed for 21 cm, it is also possible to remove the UEK21 converter and use only the shortwave receiver connected to a simple dipole. If the frequency selected is above 18 MHz, it is possible when conditions are right to listen through the ionosphere
The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...
. At lower frequencies, the ionosphere is opaque. Here, two targets are possible: the Sun with its solar flares or Jupiter, which is also a very strong radio source, together with the moon Io, which is a very powerful natural radio wave transmitter. When Jupiter, Io and the Earth are aligned, it is possible to hear this radio source very clearly.
References
External links
* RAC official website - http://www.eracnet.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:European Radio Astronomy Club
Astronomy in Europe
Radio astronomy