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NAIC/NRAO Single Dish School Program

Schedule

Talks, when available, can be found by clicking on the talk title. All talks should be considered copyright of the author.

Available talks from the 2011 School on Single Dish Radio Astronomy can be found here.

Sunday, July 05	1400 - 1700	Arrival and Registration (Residence Hall)
	1730 - 1900	Dinner with Hands-on teams for strategy planning
	1900 - 1930	Hands-on observing overview (S. Heatherly)
	1930-0700	Hands-On Observing with the 40ft telescope

Monday, July 06	0730 - 0830	Breakfast
	0830 - 0845	Registration (Jy-Lab)
	0845 - 0900	Welcome to Green Bank and School Practicalities
	0900 - 1000	Science Highlights from the Green Bank Telescope (J. Lockman) and from the Arecibo Telescopes (C. Salter)
	1000 - 1045	An Introduction to Radio Astronomy Essentials (F. Ghigo) Includes an overall description of the basic ideas of radio astronomy, such as wavelengths, atmosphere, etc
	1045 - 1100	Coffee Break
	1100 - 1200	Radio Telescope Fundamentals (J. Condon) Antenna theory and radiometers
	1200 - 1230	Science Talk (E. Rivera-Valentin)
	1230 - 1330	Lunch
	1330 - 1430	Tracing the Signal through the Telescope System (R. Maddalena); Handout is also available here
	1430 - 1530	Radiation Fundamentals (S. Ransom): Brightness Temperatures (Part I); Radiation Transfer (Part II)
	1530 - 1545	Coffee Break
	1545 - 1645	Receivers (R. Bradley) An overview of receiver types - single feeds, traditional arrays, phased arrays, and bolometers [Talk not available]
	1645 - 1730	Hands-on Project Planning
	1730 - 1900	Dinner
	1900 - 0000	Arecibo Observing Projects

Tuesday, July 07	0730 - 0830	Breakfast
	0800 - 1045	GBT Tour
	or 0830 - 1045	Machine Shop, Control Room and Lab Tours
	1045 - 1100	Coffee Break
	1100 - 1200	Pulsars (R. Lynch) Pulsar properties, searching and timing pulsars, small amount on time domain astronomy generally
	1200 - 1230	Science Talk - Imaging the Epoch of Reioniztion with PAPER and HERA (R. Bradley) [Talk not available]
	1230 - 1330	Lunch
	1330 - 1430	Spectral lines (R. Minchin) Includes spectral lines, recombination lines, radiative transfer, and molecular, and atomic sources
	1430 - 1530	Continuum (B. Mason) An overview of thermal and non-thermal emission, observing issues (confusion, gain fluctuation)
	1530 - 1545	Coffee Break
	1545 - 1645	Polarization (C. Heiles) Includes Zeeman splitting, linear polarization, Stokes parameters, beam squint/squash, and Mueller matrices
	1645 - 1730	Hands-on Project Planning and Data Reduction
	1730 - 1900	Dinner
	1900 - 0000	GBT and Arecibo Observing Projects

Wednesday, July 08	0730 - 0830	Breakfast
	0800 - 1045	GBT Tour
	or 0830 - 1045	Machine Shop, Control Room and Lab Tours
	1045 - 1100	Coffee Break
	1100 - 1145	Signal Processing Fundamentals I (J. Ford) Signal Processing basics, FPGA architecture
	1145 - 1230	Signal Processing Fundamentals II (R. Prestage) VEGAS, GUPPI, etc.
	1230 - 1330	Lunch
	1330 - 1430	Radar Observations (P. Taylor)
	1430 - 1530	Observing Extended Sources (J. Lockman) Includes stray radiation
	1530 - 1545	Coffee Break
	1545 - 1645	Calibration and Observing Techniques (D. Frayer) Basic calibration techniques, temperature scales (Ta, Ta, Tmb, Tr), and observing techniques including position switching and frequency switching
	1645 - 1730	Hands-on Projects
	1730 - 1900	Dinner
	1900 - 0000	GBT and Arecibo Observing Projects

Thursday, July 09	0730 - 0830	Breakfast
	0845 - 0945	Single Dish Mapping Techniques (A. Ford)
	0945 - 1045	Combining Single Dish Zero-Spacing Data with Interferometric Maps (A. Kepley)
	1045 - 1100	Coffee Break
	1100 - 1230	Canned Data Reduction Projects Working with telescope data that is of different type than your hands-on projects, split up into groups
	1230 - 1330	Lunch
	1330 - 1400	Science Talk (A. Kobelski)
	1400 - 1530	Project Data Reduction and Analysis
	1530 - 1545	Coffee Break
	1545 - 1730	Project Data Reduction and Analysis (continue) and Project Presentation Preparation
	1730 - 1900	Dinner
	1900 - 0000	GBT and Arecibo Observing Projects and/or Project Presentation Preparation (if needed)

Friday, July 10	0730 - 0830	Breakfast
	0845 - 0915	Writing Effective Telescope Proposals (C. Salter) Using Arecibo as the example (Handout is also available)
	0915 - 0945	GBT and NRAO proposal specifics (T. Minter)
	0945 - 1045	NANOGrav Science Program (M. McLaughlin)
	1045 - 1100	Coffee Break
	1100 - 1130	The atmosphere, including weather (D. Balser) Including the effects of the atmosphere on observations, ionospheric effects, refraction, opacity, wind-induced pointing errors, frequency-dependence of absorption, and anomalous refraction
	1130 - 1200	Science Talk (A. Seymor)
	1200 - 1230	Final Project Presentation preparation/load talks!!!
	1230 - 1330	Lunch
	1330 - 1530	Hands-on Presentations
	1530-1600	Closing Thoughts - The Future of Radio Astronomy (K. O'Neil)
	1600 - 1630	Wine and cheese reception
	1630-1730	Guest speaker Amy Lovell on comets and radio astronomy (TBD)
	1800 - 2100	Banquet Dinner with music by the Elk River Ramblers and awarding of certificates

Saturday, July 11	0730 - 0830	Breakfast
	0900 - 1200	Single Dish School Departures
	1200 - 1300	Lunch
	1400 - 2200	NRAO Picnic Activities, Dinner, and Fireworks

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Green Bank Observatory are facilities of the U.S. National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

Founded in 1956, the NRAO provides state-of-the-art radio telescope facilities for use by the international scientific community. NRAO telescopes are open to all astronomers regardless of institutional or national affiliation. Observing time on NRAO telescopes is available on a competitive basis to qualified scientists after evaluation of research proposals on the basis of scientific merit, the capability of the instruments to do the work, and the availability of the telescope during the requested time. NRAO also provides both formal and informal programs in education and public outreach for teachers, students, the general public, and the media.