Date of Award
6-9-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Publisher
Santa Clara : Santa Clara University, 2025
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
First Advisor
Kurt Schab
Abstract
Santa Clara Radio Astronomy Project (SCRAP) is a multi-year project that aims to make radio astronomy accessible to the Santa Clara University community. Previous iterations have focused on constructing and improving a parabolic radio telescope located on the balcony of the fourth floor at The Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation at Santa Clara University. Until this year, the radio telescope has been stationary. As a consequence, the telescope is only capable of observing celestial objects directly above it, severely limiting the data capture area. This thesis describes the contributions of SCRAP IV Data Acquisition to the project: enabling 2D scanning through a rotational system. This thesis will describe the defined objectives, subsystems, integration and results of the addition of the rotation system. The addition of a rotational system greatly increases the opportunities of the telescope, allowing users to collect significantly more data as well as track specific celestial events.
Recommended Citation
Alva, Nicholas and Lattimer, Peter, "Santa Clara Radio Astronomy Project IV: Data Acquisition" (2025). Electrical and Computer Engineering Senior Theses. 112.
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/elec_senior/112
