Seeing the Entire Sky at Once in Radio Waves with Dr Jayce Dowell

What does it mean to look at the the entire sky all at once in radio waves?

Charting the Course This episode dives into the world of radio astronomy with Dr. Jayce Dowell, research Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and a leading scientist for the Long Wavelength Array (LWA). Unlike the VLA the LWA explores the entire visible sky all at once, and electronics and software give it unique abilities and views of the universe. I met him at the LWA-2 facility at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge.

"The LWA is all about looking at low frequencies. So light comes, light goes in, a variety of frequencies of wavelengths, depending on how you like to think about it." - Dr. Jayce Dowell

Waypoints00:02:34 - Touring the Long Wavelength Array at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge

00:07:56 - Electronic Beamforming, All-Sky Imaging, and LWA Resolution

00:15:03 - LWA Ground Planes, Lightning Protection, and Air Force Experiments

00:24:12 - Inside the LWA Electronics Shelter: Fiber, Cable Delays, and Calibration

00:30:55 - RF Shielding, Custom Boards, FPGA Digitizers, and GPU Processing

00:43:45 - Formal Introduction to Dr. Jayce Dowell and the Long Wavelength Array

00:50:24 - LWA TV: All-Sky Images and Watching the Radio Sky

00:56:13 - Growing the LWA Network and Building a Backyard Station

01:00:04 - Software-Defined Radio, Hydrogen Line Astronomy, and Amateur Radio