Listening to the Planets

Decametric Radio emissions from the planet Jupiter, were first identified by Burke and Franklin while calibrating a 22 MHz antenna array in Maryland USA in 1955.

This was later confirmed by data collected by Alex Shain in Australia some 4 years earlier, and opened a new field of planetary astronomy.

This talk is a brief outline of the early history of decametric radio astronomy and how observations in Tasmania and New Zealand between 1971 and 1975, provided the first dynamic spectra of the Jovian radio bursts.

In the true ANZAC tradition, all this was achieved on a shoestring budget, and using an early generation of domestic videotape recorders in a way their manufactures never intended.

This should be a fascinating talk as this was the subject of Mike’s PhD!

See you there

REAST Committee