The ideal text for a one-semester course in radio astronomy Essential Radio Astronomy is the only textbook on the subject specifically designed for a one-semester introductory course for advanced undergraduates or graduate students in astronomy and astrophysics. It starts from first principles in order to fill gaps in students' backgrounds, make teaching easier for professors who are not expert radio astronomers, and provide a useful reference to the essential equations used by practitioners. This unique textbook reflects the fact that students of multiwavelength astronomy typically can afford to spend only one semester studying the observational techniques particular to each wavelength band. Essential Radio Astronomy presents only the most crucial concepts—succinctly and accessibly. It covers the general principles behind radio telescopes, receivers, and digital backends without getting bogged down in engineering details. Emphasizing the physical processes in radio sources, the book's approach is shaped by the view that radio astrophysics owes more to thermodynamics than electromagnetism. Proven in the classroom and generously illustrated throughout, Essential Radio Astronomy is an invaluable resource for students and researchers alike. The only textbook specifically designed for a one-semester course in radio astronomy Starts from first principles Makes teaching easier for astronomy professors who are not expert radio astronomers Emphasizes the physical processes in radio sources Covers the principles behind radio telescopes and receivers Provides the essential equations and fundamental constants used by practitioners Supplementary website includes lecture notes, problem sets, exams, and links to interactive demonstrations An online illustration package is available to professors

This substantially rewritten and expanded fourth edition outlines the most up-to-date methods and tools of radio astronomy. Tools of Radio Astronomy gives a unified treatment of the entire field of radio astronomy, from centimeter to sub-millimeter wavelengths and using single telescopes as well as interferometers. The basic physical principles are described and a complete outline of the instrumentation, observational techniques, and methods of measurement and analysis are given. The goal of this standard reference and text is to prepare readers to carry out observations and relate the data to physical processes in interstellar space. In this fourth edition, the chapter on interferometry and aperture synthesis has been thoroughly revised in the light of most recent developments, as has been the chapter on molecules in interstellar space, and material on receiver technology. From reviews of previous editions: "People use this book so much because it describes what one needs in order actually to do radio astronomy ... and it will remain relevant for a long time...This book is an excellent graduate level text - the best available by far. It is also the best reference book for the practising astronomer who wants to do radio astronomy properly, to interpret the jargon or to understand some of the details of current literature." Physics Today "This is the one book you should buy if you want to become a radio astronomer. (...) I have used the first and second editions as a postgraduate textbook for many years, and will now recommend the third edition to my students." The Observatory.

A unified description of the theory and practice of radio interferometry and synthesis mapping techniques as they apply to astronomy and geology. Beginning with an historical review, it goes on to provide a detailed description of all aspects of radio inferometry, from basic principles through instrumental design to data reduction. Over 450 original papers and monographs are cited.

As evidenced by five Nobel Prizes in physics, radio astronomy in its 80-year history has contributed greatly to our understanding of the universe. Yet for too long, there has been no suitable textbook on radio astronomy for undergraduate students.Fundamentals of Radio Astronomy: Observational Methods is the first undergraduate-level textbook exclus

This open access book on the history of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory covers the scientific discoveries and technical innovations of late 20th century radio astronomy with particular attention to the people and institutions involved. The authors have made extensive use of the NRAO Archives, which contain an unparalleled collection of documents pertaining to the history of radio astronomy, including the institutional records of NRAO as well as the personal papers of many of the pioneers of U.S. radio astronomy. Technical details and extensive citations to original sources are given in notes for the more technical readers, but are not required for an understanding of the body of the book. This book is intended for an audience ranging from interested lay readers to professional researchers studying the scientific, technical, political, and cultural development of a new science, and how it changed the course of 20th century astronomy.

This textbook presents the established sciences of optical, infrared, and radio astronomy as distinct research areas, focusing on the science targets and the constraints that they place on instrumentation in the different domains. It aims to bridge the gap between specialized books and practical texts, presenting the state of the art in different techniques. For each type of astronomy, the discussion proceeds from the orders of magnitude for observable quantities that drive the building of instrumentation and the development of advanced techniques. The specific telescopes and detectors are then presented, together with the techniques used to measure fluxes and spectra. Finally, the instruments and their limits are discussed to assist readers in choice of setup, planning and execution of observations, and data reduction. The volume also includes worked examples and problem sets to improve student understanding; tables and figures in chapters su mmarize the state of the art of instrumentation and techniques.

1. 1. Short History of Solar Radio Astronomy Since its birth in the forties of our century, solar radio astronomy has grown into an extensive scientific branch comprising a number of quite different topics covering technical sciences, astrophysics, plasma physics, solar-terrestrial physics, and other disciplines. Historically, the story of radio astronomy goes back to the times of James Clerk Maxwell, whose well known phenomenological electromagnetic field equations have become the basis of present-time radio physics. As a direct consequence of these equations, Maxwell was able to prognosticate the existence of radio waves which fifteen years later were experimentally detected by the famous work of Heinrich Hertz (1887/88). However, all attempts to detect radio waves from cosmic objects failed until 1932, which was mainly due to the early stage of development of receiving techniques and the as yet missing knowledge of the existence of a screening ionosphere (which was detected in 1925). Therefore, famous inventors like Thomas Edison and A. E. Kennelly, as well as Sir Oliver Lodge, were unsuccessful in receiving any radio emission from the Sun or other extraterrestrial sources. Another hindering point was that nobody could a priori expect that solar radio emission should have something to do with solar activity so that unfortunately by chance some experiments were carried out just at periods of low solar activity. This was also why Karl Guthe Jansky at the birth of radio astronomy detected galactic radio waves but no emission from the Sun.