Stargazing Building a DIY Radio Telescope: Worth the Time and Effort?

AI Thread Summary
Building a DIY radio telescope using an unused satellite dish is considered a worthwhile project, especially for beginners. Users have shared positive experiences, noting that they successfully received signals from celestial bodies like Jupiter and the Sun. There are concerns about sourcing specific components, such as the .1 MHz RF choke, with some users unable to find it at local stores. The arrival of a satellite signal meter is seen as a crucial step toward completing the project. Ultimately, trying the project is the only way to determine its success or failure.
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has anyone built this, something similar, or know anything about it? i found it on the internet and decided it was good to build seeing as i already have a satellite dish not being used. does anyone know of anything perhaps better to build? I've never built a radio telescope before, or any telescope for that matter, so i figured this is a good beginning one. you can see it HERE

just kind of wondering if this will be a waste of time
 
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I never built one but have a friend who did and later donated it to the local university. You could hear Jupiter and the Sun pretty well which can be more then enough to occupy a person!
 
if you look at the parts needed from radio shack it says a .1 mhz rf choke. is this correct or is it a typo? i can't seem to find one at radio shack or even online. at radio shack they had (i think) a 1 khz choke and it looked like the one in the pictures (i think this was the only choke they had, possibly one other kind). if it is correct, where can i find one?


i finally got the satellite signal meter from ebay so that should arrive soon hopefully. with that all i need is the choke and i can complete this thing!
 
can anyone tell me if either one, preferably which one, sounds plausible?
 
I'd be interested in if it actually works. Sometimes backyard projects like that don't work. Let me know if it works. No way to know whether it's a waste of time until you give it a try, then if it doesn't work then you know it was a waste of time. :wink:

Just being fresh. It might work, you never know. :smile:
 
Is a homemade radio telescope realistic? There seems to be a confluence of multiple technologies that makes the situation better than when I was a wee lad: software-defined radio (SDR), the easy availability of satellite dishes, surveillance drives, and fast CPUs. Let's take a step back - it is trivial to see the sun in radio. An old analog TV, a set of "rabbit ears" antenna, and you're good to go. Point the antenna at the sun (i.e. the ears are perpendicular to it) and there is...

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