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Radio Astronomy Textbook Recommendation

-- | March 16, 2015

Question: A couple of friends of mine and I are physics students. We have decided to build a radio telescope. I am responsible for data analysis part. What knowledge do I need more than Radio Interferometers, Fourier Transform and Spectroscopy? I’ve made some research about FT but I don’t still know how I should take advantage of it if electronic devices do the calculations. Can you please recommended me a book which explains What and Why do I need each of these knowledges to take properly advantage of them? Thank you in advance — Seraj

Answer: For a good general textbook on radio astronomy fundamentals, nothing beats “Radio Astronomy” by John D. Kraus. The last edition produced was in 1986, but it is still the best. You might also consider reading a nice series of lecture notes on radio astronomy by Mike Garrett which nicely describes the details of how radio telescope instrumentation works.

Jeff Mangum

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