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Past Observing Campaigns

Green Bank, West Virginia

Diary 1996

Observing Run: October 28 through November 4, 1996

This is our first observing session since leaving Australia in July 1995. Since that time, we made major upgrades to the receiver, digital electronics, and software. This is not only our first use of the 140 Foot Telescope, but we are interfacing to the telescope through a new software system at the observatory. Much of our efforts during this week will be devoted to checking out the system and interfaces, and "priming" the database with Radio Frequency Interference.

Every observatory has a unique interference environment and over time the general interference from satellites changes. So, whenever we start at a new observatory, we do a lot of "RFI Scans". To scan for RFI, we point the telescope at a fixed position, e.g., straight up at the "zenith". We then conduct normal length observations while the Earth turns. Any signals detected during an observation will be coming in from various directions, not from a star, and so must be interference. The characteristics of these RFI signals are stored in a database for use during the actual search.

We did observe the following stars in the frequency band from 1750 - 3000 MHz:

The first three stars are known to have a planet.

The only signal detected from beyond our Solar System was from Pioneer 10.

Observing Run: December 4 - 17, 1996

Update for December 13
Observations have been going well. Aside from the failure of a disk drive power supply in one of the CW Signal Detectors, the equipment has been running smoothly. We have encountered a number of signals from satellites. (Some of these signals will be displayed elsewhere in these pages.) As expected from statistics, a few signals and some random noise have passed our first level of tests. Unfortunately, as yet, none have survived further scrutiny.

Of interest to sci-fi movie buffs, today we finished observing the star Altair in the frequency range from 1750 - 3000 MHz. Altair IV was the home of the Krell, the Forbidden Planet. Although Altair is an A star, hotter than the Sun, it is among the nearest 100 stars at a distance of 16 light years and so is on our Star List. We didn't hear from Dr. Morbius, Altaira, or Robby the Robot.

Update for December 15
The observing has gone fairly smoothly. Even the TDRSS satellite was quiet for some of our observations. There was one signal that raised adrenaline levels for about half an hour. Unfortunately, it was seen in one of the "off" positions and so was just a weak and variable source of interference. Most interference signals come in from the sides of the antenna and so will be detected both when we point at the star ("on") and when we point at another direction ("off"). If the signal was coming from the direction of the star, we would only see it when we point at the star.

Update for December 17
This morning at 8:00, Jill Tarter and Tom Pierson took down the Project Phoenix banner and the Flag of Earth (see photo). Our second observing session has come to a close. As I write this, we're making our final backup tapes and doing some maintenance on the disks in one of the CW detectors.

Although we didn't get the signal, we learned a great deal about the RFI environment and tested new observation control logic. We're confident that the next run will be even more efficient and we will be a little closer to the goal of operating the system from California. (This will be important in reducing long-term costs of the Project.)

more about Past Campaigns