1st ligth at Bleien observatory, Switzerland with LWA

Today a Low Wavelength Antenna (LWA) was successfully installed and we already got 1st light, a nice type III burst.

And here the LWA in the bushes of Bleien.

United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), Committee Of the Peaceful Uses of Space (COPUOS)

Gave a talk about CALLISTO and the e-Callisto network. A recommendation letter was initiated with the intention to continue the ideas of ISWI. Scientists shall be able to make use of all the instrument networks. Data and tools shall be made available for everybody. Education shall be improved. Currently there are instruments operating under the framework of IHY2007 and ISWI of about 10 M$.

12.12.2013: Callisto observed caustic spikes

These burst from December 12th 2013 look like this is the effect of ionospheric gravity waves. This spectral features are known as caustics or caustic spikes, and they are due to the ionosphere (traveling ionospheric disturbances TIDs). The effect is local, that's why we observe different features at different locations. These effects (to my knowledge) were only observed in European region (Birr/Ireland, Essen/Germany, Glasgow/UK and Nançay/France.

New Callisto solar radio spectrometer at Sternwarte Essen, Germany

 

Biconical antenna to receiver low frequency solar radio bursts

 

Heterodyne-converter and Callisto mounted on the same panel

 

First light, a small group of type III bursts

New Callisto Solar Radio Telescope at Bosscha Observatory, Lembang, Indonesia

Crew in front of control room, front from left to right: Iwa Sutisna, Agus Setiawan, Hendro Setyanto, Putra Mahasena, Taufiq Hidayat. Behind: Maman Budiman, Denny Mandey, Dhani Herdiwijaya. The antenna CLP 5130-1 is in the background. 

Maman Budiman (left) and Agus Setiawan (right) in the control room.

Longitude: 107 deg 37’ 0.5’’ E, Latitude: 6 deg 49’ 29.6’’ S, Altitude: 1310 m, Antenna:  CLP 5130-1

New Callisto installed in South Africa

A new spectrometer has been set into operation at SANSA (South African National Space Agency) in Hermanus 7200, South Africa.

Top: LPDA pointing to the meridian transit of the sun in South Africa
Bottom: Callisto and PC in the observatory.

Now, we are waiting for the 1st light. Unfortunately the sun is very quiet at the moment....

New Callisto spectrometer in Sri Lanka installed

The CALLISTO Solar Radio Observatory is established in the Arthur C Clarke Institute (ACCIMT), Colombo, Sri Lanka. The location of the CALLISTO system is 6^o 47^’ 37^’’ N, 79^o 53^’ 53^’’ E at an altitude of 40 m and the time zone is +5.30 from UT. The log-periodic antenna was completely designed by the ACCIMT and constructed locally. Design constant (t) 0.822 and the relative spacing (s) 0.149 give 7 dBi theoretical gain for the log – periodic antenna and it covers the frequency range of 45 – 600 MHz with 18 dipoles. The theoretical impedance of the antenna 58.3 Ω is well agreed with the impedance measured in the entire frequency range. The total height of the antenna is 5.38 m and the longest dipole is 3.33 m. The linear polarized antenna is pointing to zenith and the dipoles directed to north-south direction.

The pre-amplifier is made by ACCIMT using MAR-8ASM Monolithic surface mount amplifier which gives 31.5 dB gain at 100 MHz.    

The members of astronomy division. From left; Saraj Gunasekara, Janaka  Adassuriya, Kamal Perera, Indika Medagangoda.

1st ligth, a type III burst. X-axis is local time

Rather crowded spectrum, nevertheless solar observations are still possible.