One year has passed since the OSU Radio Observatory started a three year survey of the sky. As of October 27, 1994, the survey stands 34 percent complete — right on schedule. We have had fantastic observing weather, little Radio Frequency Interference, and no major equipment trouble during the past year. The LOw Budget Eti Search (LOBES) system has faithfully detected high-intensity, natural radio sources. Thus far, one narrowband celestial point source has been detected: a maser (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). No new natural radio sources have been detected in the data analyzed.

The survey started on September 29, 1993, with the telescope pointed at +62 degrees, 20 minutes declination. This is the Radio Observatory's northernmost observational limit. A circle of sky is observed each day, by letting the earth's rotation point the telescope around the sky. Several times a week, the telescope is moved to scan the circle of sky to the south of the area just observed. The telescope is moved 1/3 of a degree each time, so 300 moves will be necessary to complete the three-year, 100-degree survey. By placing data from adjacent telescope moves together, a picture of the sky can be constructed. A map of natural radio sources generated by this survey is slowly growing on a bulletin board outside of the Dreese Lab office.

I keep a log of my activities at the Observatory, and would like to share some highlights from the past year. I must admit that the maser was my most exciting discovery to date. For a time I thought I was really onto something — it was the exact signal the system was set up to detect: narrowband frequency and point-source location. It was too good to be true, however, and proved to be a natural source. Anyway, on to the log book:

November 4, 1993:

* Set Declination to 59 degrees 00 minutes.
* Cass A detected by 2875 channels out of 3000 -> 92%.
[I took some pictures of the LOBES display half an hour after the passage of Cass A. Sidelobes could be seen. In fact, it was obvious from the display that the sidelobes 'squeezed in' at higher frequencies. This makes sense, because at higher frequencies Big Ear has a narrower main beam, and hence 'tighter sidelobes'. Cass A should be the brightest radio source encountered in the survey. (The 125 channels not registering detections have continuous interference in them.)]

One year has passed in the current survey. Thus far, no new sources have been discovered. This is not bad, since no sources seem to have disappeared, either. In fact, after comparing new contour maps of space with maps made at the Observatory 25 years ago, I find little difference at all. Space is surprisingly the same. Actually, it should not be surprising at all, since 25 years is but a sliver of time in the life of the quasars and galactic structures detected by our telescope.

Dr. Barnhart led the proceedings, and the meeting was attended by Steve Brown, Russ Childers and Raul Ordonez.

Raul reported that the CD facility on campus has apparently ruined all three of our blank CD's, in addition to three of their own. Raul will be following advice from Dr. Dixon on how to proceed. Since data appears to have been written to all three CD's, several people have offered to attempt to force access to the unreadable CD's, on the theory that the boot track is defective but that the data tracks are ok.

Considerable efforts were made to impress upon your reporter that the LNA's assembled by Ang Campanella are HEMT devices, not ones made of rope.

Russ Childers has moved the flat reflector to 32 degrees, 40 minutes, after collecting two additional days of data at the previous setting, in order to compare the performance of the new LNA's to the old ones. It will take Russ a few days to complete the analysis. In the meantime, Russ speculated that it may be necessary to retune some or many of the 50 channel receiver channels, due to what may be increased performance. In the short term, Russ changed his software to reduce the workload on the AtoD converters.

Steve Brown has assembled the Serendip equipment on a cart, with the implication it is going somewhere. Unfortunately I missed that portion of the meeting.

Dr. Barnhart is hoping to gather a large crowd of workers to perform minor miracles on September 17th. Unfortunately, I have managed to arrange a prior commitment, so trust that someone else will report on the day.

Dr. Barnhart, Dr. Dixon, Steve Brown, Russ Childers and Raul Ordonez attended the meeting in Room 815.

Raul reported on his meeting with Art Krumsee, and he will follow up tomorrow, to see if he can acquire the defective disks for analysis by Radobs volunteers. In the meantime, the CD Rom facility has committed itself to replacing the ruined disks with good new ones, but it remains to be seen if they are capable of actually performing.

Dr. Barnhart has started classes, somewhat handicapped by lack of two books for the students. He has acquired lumber and hardware for shelf construction, and he is planning to be at the RO at 8 AM this Saturday, ready to provide volunteers with instructions to carry out the construction and deployment of 7 sets of shelves. Volunteers are needed to move items out of or around in the new trailer, to cut wood, drill holes, assemble components, install bays in the trailer, and to load the shelves. This project will take a good two or three hours, and plenty of assistance will be welcome.

Steve Brown reported that Don James has succeeded in putting the RO truck back into operation, with a 'new' used radiator. The hydraulic lift at the back worked, thanks to Russ Childers having recently resupplied the oil reservoir.

Dr. Dixon met recently with the director of the OSU Astronomy department. The meeting was friendly and informative, but it appears that radio astronomy is not a subject well known to the department. OSU is continuing advanced work on remote telescope operation, as a consequence of the cancelled Columbus project.

Russ Childers reported that the telescope is positioned at 32 degrees even. There was discussion of the possibility of replacing the old LNA's in order to provide data for comparison of the performance of the new devices to the old ones. Russ had already accumulated two days of overlapping data, so the re-installation may not be required, but it was felt that exchanging the LNA's would be easier than working the flat reflector back to a position already worked by the old LNA's.

Steve Brown has moved the Serendip computer to the office building at the RO, but he is facing difficulty in mounting the equipment in the focus room. There is need for shelving in the focus room. Finally, Steve mentioned the desirability of finding a replacement for the existing bulky phase detector. The detector uses + and - 150 VDC, and 6 VAC, all of which are supplied by equipment mounted in racks near the 11/23. Eliminating the power supplies would free up room to mount the Ang Campanella PC chart recorder in the racks, freeing up table space.

ed. note: An illustration related to this article was included in last month's issue of Signals.

This is the Tuesday night report for 9/27/94, under the heading of CD success. Steve Brown has confirmed that both CD's which he took home are readable, and one of them was given to our new Administrator, Hemal Mehta, to be shipped to Herb Johnson. A sturdy cardboard box was provided, to attempt to overcome the trained gorilla's in golfing shoes who process such delicate packages. Drs. Barnhart and Dixon, Steve Brown, Russ Childers, Hemal Mehta, and visitors Laura McCracken and Ying Shi were in attendence.

Dr. Barnhart reported several items:
a. news of an Argus proposal opportunity
b. Steve Janis will soon have Internet access. Steve is seeking one or more positions with the city government in his new home, and he is negotiating for favorable references. A supply is guaranteed.
c. Dr. Barnhart will be absent next Saturday
d. There is a need to begin training for a successor to Russ Childers, who will graduate next June.

Dr. Dixon and Steve Brown confirmed that the Serendip system is running. Steve has been working with LNA's and power supplies, to try to understand some unusual or improper behavior. Dr. Barnhart will order a replacement power supply, to replace one which is no longer with us.

Steve brought in four more copies of the complete Plain Dealer article. He is working on a document to describe components and provide specifications for a second receiver train for Serendip. Steve is still working on the project, which he described as somewhat difficult due to the 'infinite' number of possible combinations which would achieve the desired result.

A portion of the meeting was devoted to recap of ongoing Radobs activities, for the benefit of our two guests.

After the meeting, Russ Childers used ftp to transfer two files of SETI data from MVS to his account on a workstation. These files are on a magnetic tape from Dr. Dixon's sealed tape cabinet, in Dreese 817.

Voyager 2 is 6.6 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) from the sun, traveling at a speed of 16.2 kilometers per second (36,238 miles per hour).

Today Ulysses is about 79 degrees south of the sun's equator, traveling at a heliocentric velocity of about 83,000 kilometers per hour (52,500 miles per hour) with respect to the sun.

The spacecraft continues to operate normally, spinning at about 3 rpm and transmitting at 10 bits per second to ground stations at NASA/JPL's Deep Space Network. The spacecraft will reach Jupiter on December 7, 1995, when its probe will descend into the Jovian atmosphere and the orbiter spacecraft will begin two years of observation and measurement of the planet, its moons and magnetosphere.

As with satellites entering Earth's atmosphere, it is difficult to predict exactly when Magellan will enter Venus's atmosphere. But the spacecraft will be traveling more than 7 kilometers per second (15,658 miles per hour) and will disintegrate from a rapid combination of dynamic force and heat. It is possible that a few pieces, such as the inner hubs of the reaction wheels, may reach the surface as burned cinders lost among the vast lava flows which Magellan revealed.

Six orbit maintenance maneuvers have been performed, and a seventh is scheduled for October 6.

The meeting on October 1st was attended by a cast of many, and the agenda was defined largely by the needs of the film crew from Paramount. The weather was perfect for the occasion. Those in attendance were: Tom Hanson, Russ Childers, Steve Brown, Marc Abel and young son, Ken and John Ayotte, Jerry Ehman, Marilyn McConnell-Goelz, Mark Sundstrom, Ang Campanella, Cindy Brooman, Tom Van Horne, Jim Bolinger, Hemal Mehta, Laura MacCracken, Ying Shi, Bob Dixon, Chuck Klein, Don James, Unnamed Cat. Representing Paramount Productions: Steve Feld, director, Andy Gardner, camera, Bob Press, grip, and Tasha Sorge, intern.

When I arrived at 10 AM, several small groups of people were walking about the landscape, and a crew member was piloting a cart full of equipment down the road toward the focus room. I joined a group near the garage, which included Drs. Dixon and Klein, Jerry Ehman, Cindy Brooman and Don James, and learned that the film crew had completed preliminary work and that they were now working in the focus room. The general meeting was to start at 11 AM.

At 11, the film crew set up in the conference room, and they recorded introductions for several minutes. They then moved to the Visiting Observer's quarters living room, where they interviewed individual members, including Jerry Ehman and Ang Campanella, as well as Marilyn McConnell-Goelz and Russ Childers.

In the open meeting, Marilyn and Russ discussed the issue of whether the flat reflector should be held in position for painting, and if so, where. It would be most difficult to roll the flat back to the northernmost position, somewhat difficult to bring it to vertical, and ideal to leave it wherever it is when the painting starts.

In the meantime, Russ is continuing the survey.

Don James reported that the truck ** was ** running, after repairs which he had made, but the new battery ran down during the most recent attempt to start it.

Cindy Brooman agreed to try to read of the CD's which were ruined during the initial stages of writing MVS data. One good CD was mailed to Herb Johnson, Dr. Klein has one on campus, and Steve Brown has the other. I have made some progress in sorting the directory listing so that an attempt can be made to match up the CD with the original data. This effort is in progress, and it appears that there will be a 3% rate of unmatched items, which must be investigated. Many of the unmatched items will probably turn out to be early versions of data which were subsequently reread.

Dr's Barnhart, Dixon and Klein, Mark Sundstrom, Cindy Brooman, Steve Brown, Russ Childers and Hemal Mehta were deep in discussion when I arrived at a little after 6 PM. Steve Brown was. at the blackboard, which was covered with boxes and arrows and labels.

As I walked in, someone was floating the idea of having an additional computer in the facility. Steve Brown explained later on that this proposed additional system would be dedicated primarily to processing output from the Serendip system. Another idea proposed was to beef up the 386 system which came with Serendip. A lengthy discussion followed, during which the benefits of changing the Serendip code here, or negotiating with Berkeley to make changes were considered. It appears that negotiating with Berkeley is more attractive. A fair amount of time was devoted to considering required capabilities and features of a possible analysis computer. We were reminded that there is need for a second RF chain, if LOBES + CONTINUUM are to be fully maintained while SERENDIP is running. Serendip cannot tolerate the Dicke switching required by the older systems. Following the computer discussions, there was an abbreviated report of activities by attendees. Steve Brown has reviewed the first draft of documentation on Serendip. He is compiling a list of items which need clarification or further work.

Dr. Barnhart has received a replacement for the LNA power supply which bit the dust a few weeks ago.

Dr. Dixon is leaving for a two week vacation on Thursday.