Color-Coded Technical Level

High

Medium

Low

If you have not read any of the documents before, I recommend that you go to the bottom of the list and read those color coded for low degree of technical difficulty. Those tend to be overview articles and will probably be the easiest to read. Also, by starting at the bottom and going up the list, you will be progressing forward in time the same way as the Argus concepts, hardware, and software developed. I have listed the documents in reverse chronological order (latest first) so that anyone who has been here before can see at once listings for the latest documents without having to scroll. Note that PDF (Portable Document Format) files must be read with Adobe's Acrobat Reader (or equivalent). A free version of the Acrobat Reader is available by going to Adobe's website at www.adobe.com .

05/050/2004: "Argus Radio Telescope Architecture" [PDF Format]. Reproduction of (PowerPoint-type) slide presentation for talk given by Douglas Needham on May 5, 2004 to the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, PA. It gives concepts and several details of the Argus system at the current time. This system is both under development and acquiring some data for test purposes.

04/20/2004: "Beyond the Big Ear": April 20, 2004 Article in The Columbus Dispatch written by Mike Lafferty. Mike Lafferty's article, reproduced with his permission, deals with the status of our 32-element Argus array, with references back to the Big Ear radio telescope.

08/05/2002: The First Argus Radio Telescope. This is an article written by Dr. Jerry Ehman that describes some of the Masters Thesis work of James L. (Jim) Bolinger that resulted in the first Argus-type radio telescope in the world. The title of his thesis was: 'A Simultaneous Multi-Beam Phased Array Using Digital Processing Techniques' and was completed in 1988. Within Jim's thesis the radio telescope is called a 'radio camera'.

07/26/2002: A 1-GHz Highpass PHEMT Low-Noise Amplifier [PDF Format]. This article, written by Dr. Steven W. Ellingson of the OSU ElectroScience Lab (ESL), deals with a low-noise solid-state amplifier to be used in the Argus array at the Ohio State University. The file is a PDF file, 2061 KB in size, that requires Adobe Acrobat to read it. A free version of the Acrobat reader is available by going to Adobe's website at www.adobe.com .

11/05/2000: Document on Argus from Ohio Historical Society Big Ear Marker Dedication Ceremony, November 5, 2000. This is an easy-to-read document handed out at the dedication ceremony of the Big Ear marker that describes the concept of Argus. It was written by Dr. Philip E. Barnhart, retired Professor of Physics and Astronomy of Otterbein College, Westerville, Ohio.

09/13/1999: Status Report On Antenna Development This article, written by Dr. Jerry Ehman, is a simplified version of the technical article by Dr. Brian Baertlein with the date of 07/02/1999 shown below.

07/22/1999: Digital Signal Processing Research at OSU This article, written by Cindy Brooman, former Big Ear webmaster, is a simlified version of the article with the date of 07/01/1999 shown below.

07/03/1999: Status Report on Argus Telescope Development This is a status report by Dr. Steve Ellingson of the Ohio State University ElectroScience Lab (ESL) on the development of the radio Argus system being designed, constructed, and built at the ESL.

07/02/1999: Status Report on Argus Antenna Development This is a technical article by Dr. Brian Baertlein of the Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory (ESL). It deals with the design, construction, and testing of an Argus antenna element.

07/01/1999: A DSP Engine for a 64-Element Array [PDF Format] This article, written by Dr. Steve Ellingson of the OSU ElectroScience Lab (ESL), deals with digital signal processing (DSP), specifically with the feasibility of using computer software-defined signal processing for large antenna arrays. The file is a PDF file, 137 KB in size, that requires Adobe Acrobat to read it. A free version of the Acrobat reader is available by going to Adobe's website at www.adobe.com .

01/21/1999: On this date two press releases were released by Dr. Robert Dixon and Dr. Steve Ellingson, both entitled: "OSU to Build Revolutionary New Radio Telescope". Both of these deal with the building of an Argus radio telescope by the ElectroScience Lab (ESL) at the Ohio State University. One of the press releases is slightly more technical than the other, but both are designed to be understood by the general public. Here is the link to the less technical press release. Here is the link to the more technical press release.

02/13/1998: Argus: The Next Generation Radio Telescope: A Brief Overview This is a short and easy to read article. It includes interesting artist conception "photos" of a variety of possible Argus element designs.

12/17/1997: Dr. Robert Dixon's Presentation on Argus at 1 kT/SKAI Technical Workshop Sydney, Australia The first link goes directly to Dr. Dixon's paper (talk and slide presentation) entitled "Optimization of the Argus Omnidirectional Array with Software and Hardware Subarrays", while the second link goes to the home page of the workshop (which shows the full program, including the papers given by the other presenters as well). Note that most of Dr. Dixon's 23 slides are quite technical, while a few are of a medium degree of technicality.

01/22/1996: Argus: A Next-Generation Omnidirectional Radio Telescope This is an excellent review article on Argus written by Dr. Robert S. Dixon, the person who originally conceived of the concept. It includes a discussion of the "Legacy of Galileo". I recommend that you read this article before you read any of the other documents listed above.

Copyright © 1996-2005 Big Ear Radio Observatory and North American AstroPhysical Observatory. Designed by Jerry Ehman. Last modified: August 19, 2005.