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What Radio Astronomy Can Be Done at S-Band?

-- | May 3, 2015

Question: At work, we have a 14 foot dish with an S-Band receiver. Are there any interesting radio astronomy frequencies around S-Band? — Frank

Answer: The radio astronomy S-band runs from about 2655 to 3352.5 MHz. Its use in radio astronomy is for continuum measurements from sources of synchrotron and free-free emission, such as supernova remnants and regions where stars are forming. Note, though, that there are numerous communications services which operate at S-band, so you might find it hard to detect astronomical signals if your receiver is not tuned to the radio astronomy allocated frequency range.

Jeff Mangum

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