How to Build a Radio Telescope (See Satellites 35,000km Away!)

Over the last 2 months me and my friend Artem (you met him in the last video) built our first radio telescope. It was built mostly out of off the shelf components, like a satellite dish and Ku band LNB, as well as some parts we 3d printed. When all was said and done we had a system that could not only take images of the sky in radip frequencies (in this case 10-12ghz), but could also be used to track satellites. With it, we were able to see the ring of satellites in geosynchronous orbit, over 35,000km away, This is only the first of what I suspect will be many more telescopes like this. Next time we'll be building ones that are far larger and can see things like the hydrogen lines so we can image the milky way.
Follow up video:
Pulling images from satellites - • How to Pull Images fro...
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Artems work:
KZbin (theartlav): / val3tra
Sound camera: www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/06/29...
Thermal camera made from heat seeking missile parts: www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/05/12...
Other awesome stuff: orbides.org/
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[@LengthyProcess]

Wow this was 6 years ago!!! 3D printing has come so far since then and I wish I could afford a printer to enjoy it and build things like this!!

[@rlrfproductions]

It really is crazy how 3D printers went from a hobbyist pile of scraps to a well designed household appliance in a span of a couple years

[@WilliamPoloValerio]

A better way to rotate the dish is by using....

[@LengthyProcess]

@@WilliamPoloValerio that's excellent, I think I'll do that.

[@loudandlearnt1758]

Love the straw analogy. Makes the whole concept a lot easier to understand. Thank you!

[@fakiirification]

"we may not fight wars of comets anymore." just wait till asteroid mining starts becoming a thing...

[@nizarch22]

Eh. If it becomes a thing, we'd have so fucking much that it doesn't even matter anymore.

[@Nonosquare2000]

@@nizarch22 an asteroid or a comet is far too small to stop wars.

[@slownix-6917]

@@nizarch22 I agree, it would fuck up the economy so hard.

[@fureversalty]

Wait till Marco Inaros hears of this

[@graullas8981]

@@fureversalty XDDDDDDDD

[@Alcohen2006]

I make my living as an Electrical Engineer, specializing in microwave radio systems, and I'm an amateur astronomer. I mention all of this because it's the only way I know to describe how crazy hungry I am for videos like this one, and how I gulp it down when I find one. This video is an absolute delight ! My hat is enthusiastically off to you guys. Now, please permit me some criticism that I hope you'll find constructive: Please give some more consideration to the question of what your finished video is to be. Is it to be a demonstration of what you did, how you did it, how much fun you had doing it, how gratifying your results were, and how the viewer can use some of your great innovative ideas ? Or is it to be an operetta, with some catchy tunes in the foreground and some occasionally intelligible murmuring in the background ? Why do radio commercials or KZbin technical videos need music at all ? And if music will be used to set a mood, then please don't use 6 to 10dB more music than it takes to set the mood. The verbal description is the priority here. Until you can either dramatize the script with sufficient skill to make all the details stand out from the background, or else hire a professional voice to do it, please highlight the priority content, and put the background back in the background. Back off on the music. We want to hear everything you have to say.

[@thethoughtemporium]

I'm glad you liked the video :) As to the sound/music, the issue is that I mix the videos on a professional set of headphones and so it's really inconsistent how other people hear it. I can hear everything perfectly fine on my end, but on some sets of speakers it's much harder to hear. Because of that I've adjusted how I put the videos together and you'll notice that in new videos there's either no music, or it's much quieter.

[@Alcohen2006]

The Thought Emporium Good ! Thanks for the reply. Reading more comments, I see that I wasn't the only one, so I know you've gotten the message. This is the first of your videos that I've seen. But it's been like stumbling over a perfect diamond the size of a coconut, and I'll be searching for more to devour.

[@thethoughtemporium]

haha well I'm glad you like the channel! It's been a great year for content and I'm looking to make the next years worth of stuff even better

[@WilliamDye-willdye]

Al Cohen : They did not realize how loud the music would become after it was encoded. KZbin videos are notoriously prone to that problem.

[@normangrody9082]

I built three Dicke radiometers. The work at 3.7, 11.7 and 20.8 Ghz with less than 1 K noise using a 0.1 second integration. The radiometers are much more stable than the total power radiometers commonly used. I describe the construction, calibration and measurements in an 80 page report.

[@davidhyer3404]

I clicked cause I love radio astronomy, but you got a instant subscription out of me because of the music. It’s pure 70’s technical video background music and it’s wonderful

[@CrazyDanishHacker]

That's a very cool project, thumbs up!

[@thethoughtemporium]

thanks :)

[@johnsono3]

You make some awesome videos too Crazy Danish Hacker.

[@CrazyDanishHacker]

Thanks :-)

[@jameswebb8162]

That radio telescope was insane!! Great job!

[@CJWarlock]

Congrats on the construction and the results. I liked the video. Good work, I appreciate it. Have fun with future projects. :)

[@maurosobreira8695]

Wonderful project! Keep up the great work, guys!

[@Billdude21]

I'm glad I found this video. I found this old piece of radio equipment and took some pics of it. This is helping explain it.

[@davidbristoll195]

Wow! Fantastic project! You combined a lot of simple ideas to create something spectacular. The introduction to radio astronomy was great too.

[@thethoughtemporium]

David Bristoll thanks :) glad u liked it

[@JT-qr7ky]

Absolutely marvellous stuff

[@roxybot9840]

I hope you got a "A" on your project and were able to present at a prospective University Department you want to attend :). May I ask what are the best frequency range to observe supernova remnants, SNRs. I would be proud of your creation, share it with an Engineering Department-you will get a scholarship!

[@TheAleRosenbaum]

Antena da Sky foi loco ahauahuahua - Excelente trabalho gente, parabens!

[@MoisesCaster]

Será que ele é brasileiro? A marca da antena, as árvores, a estrada e as casas parecem iguais ao do Brasil.

[@CapitaoAmerica737]

Moises Castro O satélite que eles pegaram era um Intelsat, que a gente usa aqui no Brasil. Eu meio que já imaginei que era no Brasil, a vizinhança é bem típica.

[@juniordantas02]

Gente, é no Brazil sim... Florianópolis... Tem no vídeo anterior deles...

[@bobufc]

Que bom ver brazukas aqui nesse canal..

[@robertomauro2526]

só me toquei quando vi o telefone, ahahaha poderiam colocar legendas em PT-BR...

[@milesprower6641]

this is so awesome dudes, cant wait for more like it!

[@joshmellon390]

I love your channel, your work inspires me to do more complicated projects, and has fed my drive to fill my lab full of cool tools lol

[@ahaveland]

Great job! I'm building something similar originally for solar tracking the sun. I made some 3D printed worm drives that have a very high torque and need no holding current for the steppers. As a result, they have microradian accuracy which is way overkill for solar tracking, but it can also do astrophotography, satellite tracking and radio astronomy just by changing what is mounted on it.

[@Mosfet510]

This was great and something Ive had a hard time finding or that was to the point. I like the section where the satellites are shown in the day. Thanks.

[@CodeLeeCarter]

This was totally awesome, Subbed!

[@johanneszwilling]

😎 Awesome! Learned so much here! Thank you!

[@RickDeckard2]

This is by far one of the coolest channels ive ever found

[@sukhithalakwan]

OMG!! I can not believe it. this is the first vid I saw on this channel and I'm loving it.

[@vedantgoydani8402]

I am glad i stumbled upon your channel!. Your content is soo amazing and unique!

[@MrBilld75]

This is why I sub to this channel. A labour of love indeed, for science and that, is so cool.

[@calibure859]

Mad respect, you guys are true scientists

[@gotsteem]

The science totally makes this video worthy of a like. The broken chair @ 10:55 persuaded me to give this video a second like so, I'll watch it under a second account for that.

[@Gonrich7]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing!

[@keithking1985]

Thank you for that!! It was deadly👍👍

[@southof.nowhere6096]

You guys are always doing the coolest stuff.

[@amiralozse1781]

awesome! you guys did some amazing work!

[@RohitBanerjee]

Lovely project. Nice Star Wars plug with the “creative” musical instrument

[@tinaschmidtsart]

OMG, it's like the McGuyver Brothers! Great job for such an ambitious project t! Awesome!

[@TheSalesEngineer]

All you need is the calculations taking your lat & lon, and cancelling out the earth's rotation! Very nice!

[@mickeyagrawal2001]

May you have a lot of success for all this hardwork

[@godzillazumagod9146]

That looks real high tech. Thanks.

[@fakiirification]

SOLIDOODLE! I have one of those! EPIC piece of early comsumer 3d printing history.

[@makimcleary393]

Great project! I really like your videos!

[@coilsmoke2286]

You guys are great. True American spirit of adventure and exploration lives here !

[@thethoughtemporium]

I'm canadian, but thanks

[@zeedee9548]

Video is pretty good and informative, good job on that, and gave the thumb up. Yes, I've read your comments about the background music, and I got it, still it was pretty destructive at certain points of your video. I would just drop it completely if hard to justify the proper level, your explanation is way more important than the music. Thanks and keep up the good work! 👍

[@realdragon]

I'm currently learning about radio telescopes. That's great I found this video

[@patrichausammann]

At 4:44, the 3d printer seems to play a remake of the Star Wars soundtrack "The Imperial March"(Darth Vader's Theme). Really nice project, thumbs up!

[@Carlos244]

In fact, that was the joke. It was playing it

[@SonFslt]

r/wooosh

[@80sOutrunFan]

Seems? no it does mate :D, love it!

[@optimusprime9724]

Darth Vader

[@noname-bt9ky]

Cool! Make it bigger and better!

[@vikingskuld]

Hey thanks for this it was really cool to see.

[@packratswhatif.3990]

Very Cool Project ! Well done guys ......

[@AliciaSykes]

This is awesome! 🚀

[@kmajaleelmohamedkodenchery2796]

I like this AV very much.

[@NovaRanger007]

This was very informative.

[@brocksterification]

Awesome work! 👌

[@Tutterzoid]

Love the musical instrument(3d printer music) at 4:39 :) Thumbs Up :)

[@johnnyholzer7484]

The auto generated closed captions for this are hysterical! Great video though!

[@theshantyman]

very cool, thanks for sharing.

[@franciscoparratrcka6992]

Amazing!

[@darkseid6412]

i did not see building a radio telescope, this was building a mount for a radio telescope. a lot of info was lacking. how do you connect it to your computer , the software to use, decoding the frequencies from the dish etc. the video did not reflect the title. it looked cool when i first watched it and wanted to build my own. but now i watch it again , it just shows a complete radio telescope being mounted only.

[@sonicsphincter6]

Love the inclusion of The Imperial March performed by the 3d printer that looked like it had been dropped down a flight of stairs.

[@worldbestpilot]

Simply great !! I am currently setting up a home-brew 3.8 m radio telescope for pulsar monitoring ! Let's share experience !

[@thethoughtemporium]

That sounds like quite the build! I've wanted to do the same for a while now but haven't had the land to build it on

[@slamdvw]

The audio sounds good here... and I've got a crappy set of speakers. Nice project as well!

[@TheElectronicDilettante]

Awesome!

[@BadChizzle]

Very nicely spoken. Was a lot of work. You must really Enjoy what you were doing.

[@Tortilla0987]

Idea: mount the dish on a tall 180degrees turning fan and make the support stronger with wood, reinforce the bottom plate with more wood and hot glue

[@rs4artha]

This was really awesome......

[@metinsaltik1651]

nice work thanks a lot.

[@evilplaguedoctor5158]

Very cool! Thank you =D I really should dig through your channel more when I have the time :)

[@thethoughtemporium]

Glad you liked it :)

[@nstauf]

What a fantastic project! The concrete deserves an array of dishes working together. The music was just fine for me, I could hear you clearly throughout.

[@carlinhosff]

Top hein galera! Parabéns!

[@bryceforsyth8521]

Yay, now something to use some of my satellite dishes for!

[@christopherpetrov2355]

Brilliant 💗

[@anashc5787]

Ammazing work guys nice work 👍👍

[@TheJerryskid]

This is incredibly interesting

[@jaredz9507]

nice job man 👌this channel is gonna blow up one day and i cant wait

[@thethoughtemporium]

Thanks :) I really hope so :)

[@spiderjerusalem]

Well, after years looking up on KZbin for some crazy and nice DIY projects, after years of scrolling down "Hey guys today we are going to make X at home, to start you need these $50000 equipment." videos, finally I got a channel. First sub.

[@theodoreroberts3407]

I like your work. I also have an interest in radio astronomy, specifically pulsar research. Thanks for the heads up.

[@YU5KBM]

Nice job

[@fuzzyboi1721]

Omg this is AMAZING!

[@darcam]

Just awesome

[@mccc4559]

BRO, YOU ARE ONE OF THE COOLEST GUYS I HAVE EVER SEEN ONLINE AND I HAVE BEEN ONLINE SINCE 1991 --- I WISH YOU THE BEST. PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU'RE WORKING ON TODAY. MAY YOU BE BLESSED WITH HEALTH ALWAYS!!!

[@BrianThomas]

This was an awesome video. Thank you so much for pouring you passion into this. You can truly see that. Question. Excuse my ignorance but what sort of FCC regularly issues would someone need to be concerned about when doing stuff like this? 2) Question: since this was 3 years ago how would you do this differently? In terms of construction and and hardware?

[@gkprivate433]

Lower the background music several db! As an amateur astronomer and an engineer now testing Electronic Warfare Systems both receivers and jammers, I like projects like this. I had Kraus's book "the big ear", and his book on radio astronomy.

[@jameswebb8162]

Sweet!

[@thiagosmith3019]

Porra!! Brazuca na veia! Fiquei feliz em descobrir que vcs estão aqui na grande fazenda produzindo tecnologia. A tomada denunciou...

[@MrOnizukakira]

freaaaking aweesome

[@braytonpierce8624]

Its super cool to see the progression of these dudes! From hot glue and janky 3d printers to brain stuff and genetics.

[@victormendoza3295]

Love the music.

[@sarahszabo4323]

By the way, as someone who does occasional carpentry, this is some Frankenstein-level shit with that wood frame, but it's brilliant for sure. Love the videos, keep it up!

[@sold9603]

What a freaking awesome video……. Wowwwwww 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 congrats on your future projects 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@electronicsandradio3945]

Subbed and shared. Good content.

[@ahmedgaafar5369]

really amazing guys ...bravoo...in real engineering world ...people would calculate and simulate the design before prototyping.

[@Kalanchoe1]

friggen cool guys!!!

[@thethoughtemporium]

thanks :D

[@nonsquid]

This sounds like a great way for a two dimensional solar panel tracker, even with overcast. It would be immune from bird poop and leaves. It could be directly integrated into a plc or basic stamp controller and it is direct measurement, not inferred.

[@devondaviau]

Very cool.👍🕶😄

[@allaboutbasicradio4136]

Great content, but the background music drowns you out.

[@thestellarcorpse]

true

[@jacq0272]

Cool!

[@Onyxx98]

Damn these Videos are really interesting

[@daniwalmsley611]

You don't need a bigger dish, you need more dishes. You can increase the angular resolution of radio telescopes by pointing two or more at the same object and measuring the distance between them. The images can then be combined like stacking exposures with optical telescopes. The larger the distance between the dishes and the higher accuracy in the measurements improve the angular resolution. This is how we took the picture of a black hole. By combining radio telescopes from all around the world with accurate positioning we were able to have the angular resolution of a dish the size of the earth

[@salih-khan]

for me its 2019 and this vid is 2017 so don't know bout you but I don't need to wait and I'm gonna check the new vids out :)

[@scellyyt]

Nice! 📡🛰️

[@chansebunker7373]

Oh, I hit the like button immediately after that imperial march!

[@muhammadkaifhaseebtaiba3742]

Nice radio telescope

[@kjamison5951]

Kudos to you all. I doff my hat.

[@earthbjornnahkaimurrao9542]

This is great. How hard would it be to increase the resolution?

[@chienbanane3168]

Now team up with people in the Philippines to do some interferometry!