An Introduction to Radio Astronomy

Description

Radio astronomy is an active and rapidly expanding field due to advances in computing techniques, with several important new instruments on the horizon. This text provides a thorough introduction to radio astronomy and its contribution to our understanding of the universe, bridging the gap between basic introductions and research-level treatments. It begins by covering the fundamentals physics of radio techniques, before moving on to single-dish telescopes and aperture synthesis arrays. Fully updated and extensively rewritten, the fourth edition places greater emphasis on techniques, with detailed discussion of interferometry in particular, and comprehensive coverage of digital techniques in the appendices. The science sections are fully revised, with new author Peter N. Wilkinson bringing added expertise to the sections on pulsars, quasars and active galaxies. Spanning the entirety of radio astronomy, this is an engaging introduction for students and researchers approaching radio astronomy for the first time. Cover Front Matter AN INTRODUCTION TO RADIO ASTRONOMY Copyright Dedication Contents Preface Part I: The Emission, Propagation, and Detection of Radio Waves 1 The Role of Radio Observations in Astronomy 2 Emission and General Properties of Radio Waves 3 Spectral Lines 4 Radio Wave Propagation 5 The Nature of the Received Radio Signal 6 Radiometers 7 Spectrometers and Polarimeters Part II: Radio Telescopes and Aperture Synthesis 8 Single-Aperture Radio Telescopes 9 The Basics of Interferometry 10 Aperture Synthesis 11 Further Interferometric Techniques Part III: The Radio Cosmos 12 The Sun and the Planets 13 Stars and Nebulae 14 The Milky Way Galaxy 15 Pulsars 16 Active Galaxies 17 The Radio Contributions to Cosmology Appendix 1. Fourier Transforms Appendix 2. Celestial Coordinates and Time Appendix 3. Digitization Appendix 4. Calibrating Polarimeters Appendix 5. Spherical Harmonics References Index