Tag: directv

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Empire Space, CNYO At DOGOnews, And Another Cloudsonian

Above: New York State on (2024) June 21, the first day of summer, as seen from NASA’s Terra satellite. Credits: NASA

A couple of astronomy-related and highly educational items for your consideration.

Empire Space (And Solar System Ambassador List)

New Yorkers – go directly to empirespace.org and come back after.

I was really happy to find out that this organization exists. From the website:

"Empire Space is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to comprehensively analyzing, supporting, and promoting the entire New York space sector, with the aim of fostering economic growth, promoting research and development, and increasing academic and commercial opportunities in the space sector for New Yorkers of all backgrounds. Empire Space achieves these objectives by conducting thorough research and analysis, networking between various stakeholders to promote sector synergies, and engaging the everyday public."

from empirespace.org

First contact came from my being emailed through the Solar System Ambassador (SSA) website about their inaugural "Space Day New York," held on 2023 May 25. Current version of their website now includes links to all of the NY-based SSAs (who might still be recovering from the flurry of Eclipse 2024 lectures, but I did manage one Perseid-centric lecture myself last month at Parma Public Library).

CNYO-Assisted Perseid Explainer On DOGOnews

In the you never know when it might come in handy department: A google alert announced that "CNYO" had appeared somewhere on the internet recently. As it isn't the most common combination, a check of the associated link led me to Kavi Dolasia's article "Perseid Meteor Showers Promise A Dazzling Show This Year" at dogonews.com (local PDF).

"Started as a current events supplement for a 3rd Grader, DOGO has since grown into the leading global literacy platform used by millions of students and English as a Second Language (ESL) learners." It's mission: "To satisfy the innate curiosity of every learner through interesting, engaging, and interactive content that makes learning fun and exciting."

from dogonews.com

This is awesome and, with two in the house eventually doing that "3rd grade and beyond" thing, was delighted that CNYO was able to make a small contribution to something recent after all this (official) time off (original CNYO post here).

Cloudsonian Backup (Stereo?)

And finally, a glimmer of hope for those wanting to try it and are living in an area with recently disgruntled satellite TV subscribers.

I made mention in the Cloudsonian post to scour for DIRECTV/DishTV/HughesNet (if you can find'em)/etc. dishes as you're out and about town. This second dish was dropped at the curb by our new next-door neighbors, then Theodore and I saw another one at the curb while driving to Wegmans on a recent Sunday morning. Honest to goodness, they're out there and are likely good enough to play with. If they can survive outside for +5 years in WNY, I don't know what, short of a big hammer, it would take to make'em not useful for some simple radio astronomy.

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"Cloudsonian" – DIRECTV Solar (And Other) Itty Bitty Radio Telescope Setup For Daytime Fun – Part 1: Cheap PoC

Above (and we didn't do this): The Very Large Array antennas dip in formation to observe a target in the southwest sky. Radio telescopes can observe day or night. From https://public.nrao.edu/gallery/the-backs-of-the-vla-dishes/

When we first bought the house, the DIRECTV dish was screwed in tight on the northwest side and we had no intention of ever doing anything with it because everything we want (WXXI) is pumped direct into our digital antenna. That said, you can't do amateur astronomy and own a dish without at some point wondering if you could do some kind of observing with it – which eventually led me to Mike Brown's "Summer project: Build a radio telescope at home" page on making a solar scope on the super-cheap. A long time ago. "I gotta try that," as the saying goes.

The issue was forced this year by my eldest remarking on how the dish wasn't doing any good in the basement by itself. Good point. It's been seven years, but it is an outdoor dish designed for whatever weather conditions Western NY can throw at it, so I decided it was worth a little bit of money to see what might come of trying to, at the least, pick up the Sun with it.

And it works(!), even it we're a loooong ways away from the movie Contact. I present to you our proof-of-concept house "Cloudsonian" – good enough to find the Sun, geosynchronous satellites providing signal, and other stuff we've not yet identified. Also nearly as much fun as a four-year-old can handle for a good 30 minutes.

And, of course, there is nothing new about this – the Itty Bitty Radio Telescope has lots of precedent (and links) and lots of examples (and links). Some relevant links (and links) below:

  1. https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/ibtmanual2.pdf
  2. https://www.gb.nrao.edu/epo/ibt.shtml
  3. https://www.radio-astronomy.org/store/projects/ibt
  4. http://www.stargazing.net/David/radio/itty_bitty_radio_telescope.html
  5. http://arrl.org/files/file/ETP/Radio%20Telescope.pdf
  6. https://www.aoc.nrao.edu/epo/teachers/ittybitty/procedure.html
  7. https://www.opensourceradiotelescopes.org/itty-bitty-radio-telescope/
  8. Whatever else your web search for "Itty Bitty Radio Telescope" might come up with

If you just wanted to try something, had some money lying around, but didn't want to go into any real technical detail, the below and some aim will get you buzzing.

Parts List

  1. The Complete Dish (for us, with a LNB SL5S4NR2-02) – honest to goodness, there was another one out in the trash at a neighbor's house last year and I didn't think to go out late at night and take it. You might find one cheap on craigslist, might just see one on the street, who knows. Parts are also all over ebay. The range for this sized dish is 12.2 to 12.8 (OK, 12.7) GHz, or the entire Ku band of the EM spectrum. You'll find this out if you do broad searches for "other uses for DIRECTV dishes," where some of the most interesting uses are for outdoor cooking.
  2. ($57) Tripod – we went very cheap on first pass, using PVC I had lying around. We had so much fun that I eventually sprung for a proper tripod to make life (and aiming) a bit easier – 3ft Heavy Duty Tripod Mount for Starlink, Antenna, DIRECTV, Ubiquiti (includes 1.66" by 2" diameter Mast) – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B2213CV7
  3. ($13) Power Supply – you can do this by soldering some connectors together to get enough 9V batteries to do what you need, but, for $14, you can just buy something you don't have to fiddle with – AT&T (Formerly DIRECTV) 21 Volt Power Inserter for All DIRECTV SWM LNBs (PI21) – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005AME7Y8
  4. Satellite Finder – bought two because the first one (orange) didn't work on battery alone, then the second one (blue) ended up being touchy when plugged in. Orange + Power Supply = audible detection.
  5. ($4) Coax Cable – if you don't have a spare – Monoprice RG6 Quad Shield CL2 Coaxial Cable with F Type Connector – 18AWG, 75 Ohm, 6 Feet, Black – https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003L1AG72?th=1
Theodore (4), amateur radio astronomer

We had it out for an hour the first time, fighting with the PVC stand to point the dish at the Sun, then at the rough position we knew the DIRECTV satellite to be, then at various other locations just looking for legitimate changes in signal.

The Thrill Is Not (Entirely) Gone…

It comes out intermittently at this point. After the March setup, we used it during the April 8th Total Solar Eclipse this year. Given the ridiculous cloud cover we had in the Rochester area that entire afternoon, our use of the dish to find the exact location of the Sun and point it out to backyard attendees was entirely reasonable.

Poorly framed, poorly focused, but three generations and the rig on the tripod on April 8th.

I'd be remiss in not mentioning the several relevant pages put together by Martin Pepe on the ASRAS website for those looking for some more background (and others in the area who have done the same or much, much better).

A very simple Round 1 is in the bag and we'll see what else we decide to do with the dish or something more involved as another observatory project. Stay tuned (no pun intended).