The Warren Astronomical Society meets monthly on the first Monday of every month in the auditorium at Cranbrook Institute of Science. We do a bit of club business early on, then have a major presentation usually put together by one of our members.

Jim Van Prooyen, a long-time member and former officer of the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association and a prominent figure in amateur radio astronomy, visits us to talk about personal radio astronomy. He may cover Radio JOVE, which our club has built and would like to start using. (Photo sourced from SETI League.)

The presentation on radio astronomy will cover the many things that can be observed with radio astronomy and detail how radio astronomy is different from optical astronomy. Detail will be presented on how to observe the Sun, Geomagnetic Storms, Gamma Ray Bursts Meteors and Pulsars. Sources for equipment and software will also be presented.

James Van Prooyen is a member of SARA (Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers) with 10 years of radio astronomy observation using several different radio telescopes, and author of several papers on pulsar observation methods. He has operated a radio observatory at his home for 10 years. Research has been directed to the following areas:

• New computer algorithms that will allow smaller radio telescopes to do the work of larger radio telescopes, this is done by using computer-processing power (which is currently very low cost) in place of large dish antennas. This work has allowed the development of new methods of Pulsar observation in radio astronomy.
  
• Use of Very Low Frequency Radio to observe near earth event such as meteor showers, spacecraft re-entry events, and Gamma Ray Bursts.
  
• Development of new antenna system for radio astronomy.

The views expressed in presentations are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent, and should not be attributed to, the Warren Astronomical Society.