Unveiling Ghostly Traces: Amateur Telescopes Illuminate Hidden Galactic Debris
Martínez-Delgado and collaborators used amateur telescopes to capture deep images of 15 nearby spiral galaxies, revealing faint stellar tidal streams and other signs of past galactic mergers. Their results show that small, accessible telescopes can contribute valuable data to galaxy evolution studies, achieving detection limits comparable to professional observatories.
Building a Window into the Galaxy: Designing a Home Radio Telescope for Detecting 21 cm Hydrogen Emission
Phelps’ study outlines the design of a low-cost, home-built radio telescope capable of detecting the 21 cm hydrogen line, allowing for the observation of neutral hydrogen distribution and motion within the Milky Way. By measuring Doppler shifts, the setup captures velocity data for hydrogen clouds, revealing details about the galaxy's structure and rotational dynamics. Through effective signal processing and interference reduction, this project makes advanced galactic observations accessible to amateur astronomers, helping map the motion of hydrogen gas in the Milky Way's spiral arms.