Aricebo funding to drop

[Roisen]

I thought I read an article in the technical news of SETI@home, saying that funding for Aricebo was slated to drop 6 million by 2010, and that the SETI project would turn to another array that currently had ~50 dishes and was largely funded by the co-founder of Microsoft (not Gates), and they were planning on making the array as much as 200 dishes, anyway, I want to read more about this array, but can't find where I first read it, so I was wondering if someone else knew.

/end run-on sentence.

 

[Tyrinon]

You might check out this link: http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_igps_one_051006.html

eaglescouter may be able to say more about this as he lives near the array.

 

[Roisen]

Thanks!

 

[QuietIce]

It's the Allen SETI array. Paul Allen provided funding for it, among others. Do a Goggle, there are lots of articles on it including one at SETI.org:

http://www.seti.org/site/pp.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=179146


Even with all the upgrades Arecibo's getting old. As I understand it, The Allen Array is a dedicated SETI-scope and is built much like the VLA in Socorro, NM - the array shown in Contact ...

 

[freakdiablo]

Even with all the upgrades Arecibo's getting old. As I understand it, The Allen Array is a dedicated SETI-scope and is built much like the VLA in Socorro, NM - the array shown in Contact ...

Ya, but what SETI really needs is a satellite radio telescope like Hubble only for radio waves to get past any interference that the atmosphere is causing (or so Ive heard >.>)

 

[QuietIce]

And I always thought there wasn't much atmospheric interference with radio waves (though there is often orbital stuff that gets in the way). The farther away two radio telescopes are from each other, the better the image they can generate, so space-based scopes in conjunction with ground scopes can definitely get better images, and I assume better radio reception. Kinda' like the difference between an 18" DISH Network dish and an 8' dish - there's not a thunderstorm in the world that's going to stop the 8' dish from getting a signal ...

 

[Roisen]

When dealing with strong signals that are directed at earth, as with direct tv satelites, you don't need big of a dish to get the signal. However, a signal that is broadcasted from 40 light years away may pass through as much particulate during it's entire journey through space as it does in the last .10 seconds in earth's atmosphere.

Although I don't have any numbers, my point is the fewer particles you can get between the source and the destination, the better, and Earth's atmosphere is very thick compared to space.

(And now the reason I came back to this thread: )
Any word on the Allen array's performance right now and what's expected?

 

[eaglescouter]

I understand that there are 42 dishes at the Allen Array currently and in July 07 they were going to start running scans of the sky.

Unfortunately for us the Allen Array does its signal processing in real time, thus there is currently no opportunity for distributed computing to participate in the project.

 

[freakdiablo]

Unfortunately for us the Allen Array does its signal processing in real time, thus there is currently no opportunity for distributed computing to participate in the project.

You know what that means, BREAK OUT THE SATELLITE DISHES BOYS, WERE GONNA FIND US SOME ALIENZ.

 

[sp33dball]

You know what that means, BREAK OUT THE SATELLITE DISHES BOYS, WERE GONNA FIND US SOME ALIENZ.

Wait, so if I point my satellite dish at the sky in various spots I could get images of aliens on my tv??! Be back in 20!!

 

[Roisen]

1. Hi-jack hundreds of satalite tv dishes
2. arrange in array in backyard
3. Find some aliunz
4. ???????
5. PROFIT!!

Unfortunately for us the Allen Array does its signal processing in real time, thus there is currently no opportunity for distributed computing to participate in the project.

currently... perhaps when they get more dishes online there will be too much data to sort through and the will turn to DC? or how about our Berkley boys borrowing this data to get us some fresh data to crunch Would be nice to see some 2007s in with those 1999s !!