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NAAPO News Volume 02 Number 01
NAAPO News Volume 02 Number 01
NAAPO (North American
AstroPhysical Observatory)
"NAAPO News"
Volume 2 Number 1
(September 23, 1986)
NAAPO Coordinator - Philip E. Barnhart,
Department of Physics/Astronomy
Editorial Intern - Michele Davis, Otterbein
College, Westerville, Ohio 43081
CALL FROM HAY RIVER

Just before press time a call from Bob Stephens in Hay River, Northwest Territories, (our
most northerly NAAPO outpost) came in. Bob had a couple items he remembered from the
shop/storage area at the radobs that he wanted to claim before we threw them to the scrap
dealer. In the conversation that followed (it was, after all, his nickel) he filled me in on the
status of the SETI program in the land of Nanook.
On the up side, he travels to Vancouver, B. C. to film a portion of a planetarium program to
be presented over the winter months to audiences in the Expo area. He is sharing billing
with Frank Drake.
He also reports he is now fully steerable from +30 to +46 North Declination. For an
instrument that consists of SOLIDLY mounted parabolic reflectors this is quite an
accomplishment. He is using a selsyn motor to control the vertical position of the prime
focus feeds. The report is that there is NO electrical interference from the drive motors
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while conducting a declination change with the receivers ON. This will allow him to map
the entire 16 degree swath in about 6 weeks, spending two days per half power beam width
in declination. He has added two microcomputers to his system, one a Z80 based machine
to do his on-line aquisition and processing work and an Atari 520ST which he intends to
use off-line for reducing his sky survey data.
Bob reports that he is getting about a 1 jansky sensitivity over a 10 MHz bandwidth at 1420
MHz. He expects this to increase to 100 millijansky after completion of a new pair of low
noise amplifiers.
On the down side - - Bob describes the most grim sort of financial bind with the lease
holders breathing down his neck. He is not just working on a shoestring. He is emulating
Charlie Chaplin and eating his shoestrings. And we think we have troubles.
He does promise to get information to us about his operation for dissemination to the
friends of NAAPO. He also promises a copy of his H I spectrum that had to await copier
paper. We are waiting with baited breath.
WANT A MIRROR?

Do you have need of a 60-inch Pyrex mirror? One is available for you for the asking. The
only requirement for possession is the willingness to haul it away. It is Pyrex and weighs in
at about 3000 lbs.
Any ideas? It is presently located on the Skip Lewis farm, southeast of Zanesville, Ohio.
SUBMIT LETTERS, COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS TO:
DR. PHILIP E. BARNHART, NAAPO COORDINATOR
Dept. of Physics/Astronomy
Otterbein College
Westerville, Ohio 43081
(614) 898 1516
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WORKING SESSION Sept 20, 1986 at Big Ear
In attendance: Huck, Abel, Davis, Barnhart, Dixon, Monk, Kraus; Guests - Lubbers. Gall,
Tilden, (all of Creighton Univ.), Neff (Otterbein Col).
Reports were received from the following areas:
Dreese/OSU
-- Work is proceeding both on hardware and software projects necessary to
get the 11/23 on line. It looks as if the hardware will be the major hold-up in the process. A
proposal to reduce the aquisition cost for components was explored later in the meeting.
The ability to take the 50-channel receiver to Dreese will speed the conversion somewhat as
the testing and calibration can be done all at once before transport of the system to the
RADOBS. The 11/40 has now been removed by Aero Engineering. We can now proceed
with the installation of the 11/23 into the vacated cabinets.
RADOBS/Delaware
-- In the absence of Mikesell we had to patch together the status of the
on-site work. Progress is slow on the fence. The need for cash is acute in order to pursue
certain of the fencing jobs. We still await the POA from Foster to finish the transfer of title
on the Honda. There is need to begin the cart drive project again. A "cut/break" occurred in
the trolley line lead-in from the cart position indicator. The wire seems to have been
smashed and then cut. This is an unusual kind of break and may indicate a strange intruder
(vandal?).
The strip-chart recorder is still "gushing" ink. Request was made that Barnhart contact
'magic fingers' Mitchell to see if he would examine the system to render a fix according to
the Mount Wilson protocol for gushing recorder ink pens.
Barnhart, Huck and Bolinger attached the instrument housing to the tail end of the receiver
horns earlier in the week. The device (weighing roughly 1.7 bolingers) is presently hanging
only by its sides. Bracing and caulking are yet to be completed. It is the view of those
hanging it that a gusty wind might damage the horn assembly should we not brace the
housing soon.
Otterbein/Consortium
-- Barnhart paid an unannounced visit to Teamguard offices this
week. In spite of their obvious reticence to talk to a strange character about their systems it
was determined that false alarms are an industry wide problem. We have very little that we
can do. It is the consensus of those standing around the office at Teamguard that a gust of
wind might very well shake the door enough to open the contact. It needs but 3/8 inch to
send the alarm. We can test this under the system test mode without disturbing the operators
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at the security office.
Otterbein College Department of Physics is making an indefinite loan to NAAPO of a
Tektronix Model 5054 Graphics work station. If the system is in working condition, it
should add considerable power to the focus room data gathering and processing capability.
Anyone with experience on this equipment is welcome to provide input or advice about full
utilization or operation of the equipment. It is the first hardware used at the RADOBS
programmed in BASIC. Here is a chance to educate the radio astronomers in this
microprocessor language standard.
The Consortium office is in the process of recruiting student interns for the office
operations this year. We are breaking in a Newsletter Editor today. Michele Davis is
attending her first working session this afternoon and will begin to function with this issue
of the Newsletter. We are also looking for an editor for the Facilities Manual that we hope
to get out in the next few months. In addition we are looking for an office manager intern
and some data reduction interns.
A number of work projects are getting under way in which we would like to include
consortium member institutions. The proposed methods of doing this will be outlined in the
Newsletter.
An offer to provide construction aid has been made by SARA, the amateur radio astronomy
group. We intend to pursue this offer as well.
Word was received this week from Dr. Brian Watson at St. Lawrence University in Canton,
New York that they may be interested in joining NAAPO. We will be following up on this
contact over the next few weeks.
Dixon reports that as a result of the embezzlement of the Overlay and Finding List funds by
the Department of Electrical Engineering the NASA grant is suffering a definite crisis.
Because of the freezing of these two accounts it has been necessary to pay current salaries
out of the NASA grant. Since the NASA funds require a 45% overhead charge on salaries
and wages, we get only 60% on our dollars and the money goes down in a hurry. Two
proposals were presented for consideration. 1) Pay future salaries and wages from NAAPO
to preserve NASA money for non-overhead expenditures such as equipment and parts. 2)
Request the NASA renewal money to start in October instead of January. The second
alternative will only postpone the inevitable exhustion of this resource. Further
consideration of this problem can not be carried very far into the future.
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Barnhart reports that there are three seminar dates tentatively scheduled for the fall term for
the purpose of carrying the NAAPO message to students in the consortium. Reports on
these visits will be included in the Newsletter.
Kraus announced the sobering news that radio station WRFD is being evicted from its
present transmitter site 4.5 miles south of Big Ear to make way for housing developments.
Proposed reloc