Pulsar B0329+54 Detected with a 1.9m Dish and RTL-SDR

Over the past few years Job Geheniau has been constantly surprising us with his amateur radio astronomy results coming from modest dish sizes and low cost SDR equipment like an RTL-SDR. We've seen him perform full sky hydrogen line surveys, measure galactic rotation, image the Cygnus star forming region, image the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant, detect interstellar high velocity clouds and observe a red supergiant star.

Job's latest work has seen him detect Pulsar B0329+54 with his 1.9m dish and an RTL-SDR. He writes:

A pulsar is the rapidly spinning and pulsating remnant of an exploded star.

PSR B0329+54 is a pulsar approximately 3,460 light-years away in the constellation of Camelopardalis. It completes one rotation every 0.71452 seconds and is approximately 5 million years old

Everything indicates that I may have been able to detect the pulsar B0329+54 with JRT [Job's Radio Telescope]. This dish has a diameter of 1.9 meters, which would make it the first time (!) this pulsar has been detected with a dish of this size as far as I can tell. This result was obtained thanks to the good help and software of Michiel Klaassen.

Job has also provided a PDF file that documents his setup and results in more detail, which we have uploaded to our server here.

Tweet15
Share
Reddit1
Vote
Email
16 Shares

Related posts:

  1. Vela Pulsar Glitch Detected with RTL-SDR Based Radio Telescope
  2. An Overview of Neutron Star Group Pulsar Detection Projects with the RTL-SDR
  3. Amateur Pulsar Observations with an RTL-SDR
  4. Astrophiz Podcast Interviews Steve Olney: Capturing the 2019 Vela Pulsar Glitch with an RTL-SDR
  5. Software De-Dispersion of RTL-SDR Pulsar Data
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

4 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Job Geheniau
#230731

no idea. ask in https://www.facebook.com/groups/satelliteimages

0
Reply
Jeff
#230691

Job…can you speak to what we could do with a discarded Direct TV dish….is it’s size adequate for something like GOES weather images ? I’ve collected 2 so far, but nobody can tell me any technical details like does the focal length of the dish define frequency, and preclude using for other data capture from other satellite sources ?

0
Reply
Rob Welsh
#230678

I am very impressed with the results of detecting a pulsar given your equipment.
I am a retired Associate Astronomer at the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia.
I’ve detected pulsars using much more sophisticated equipment so your observation is outstanding.
Much of my observations are from the 12 meter, hydrogen-line radio telescope.
Well Done! Rob Welsh N3RW

0
Reply
Job Geheniau
#230690

Thanks! Busy now trying again for extra proof. It’s very hard to detect, have to have some luck also….

0
Reply