Report from Indonesia

Radio Astronomy Activities inIndonesia

Radio Astronomy Working Group
T. Hidayat –Department of Astronomy and Bosscha Observatory

Institut Teknologi BandungIndonesia
The 12th East-Asian VLBI Workshop, Ibaraki University, 23 – 27 September 2019

Outline The Needs for New Observatory in Indonesia
 Construction of National Observatory
 Plan of Radio Astronomy
 On Going Project of Telecommunication Antenna

Conversion

BOSSCHA OBSERVATORY- ITB, Lembang (Indonesia):
Optical telescopes
For radio astronomy, there was a plan in 1980s (GERT, Swarup, Hidayat,
Sukumar, 1984). Not yet realized.

Light Pollution

The surrounding of Bosscha Observatory in Lembang has been light-polluted since the beginning
1990s (https://alfannas.wordpress.com/my-photo-works/#jp-carousel-238)

Existing Radio Telescopes at Bosscha

Dipole Array – Radio JOVE, 20,3 MHz

SRT 2.3m, 1420 MHz“Teleskop Hidrogen” 6m, 1420 MHz
Callisto Telescope

Examples of some resultsSite selection and evaluation for new observatory (since 2007):More than 30 mountain sites have been studied

Go East!

(Hidayat et al. 2012)

Site survey

2009

2013

2014

Indonesia is developing
National Observatory; LAPAN(2016 – 2020)
Mount Timau

National Observatory

Mount Timau, Kupang Regency, NTT

MASTER PLAN: Programs on optical, radio, and … near infrared

Head Quarter and Science Center of
National Observatory

Tilong, Kupang Regency, NTT

The 3.8 m Telescope – Kyoto University (Okayama) & Nishimura Co. Ltd

First meeting with Kyoto University, 21 May 2015

RFI Measurement(Hidayat et al. 2014)

National Observatory: Under Construction

June – July 2019

July 2019

August 2019

Outreach Programs in National Observatory

In cooperation with the University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank

July 2018

ITB Summer School on Radio Astronomy 2019

In cooperation with the University of Manchester (UK) & KASI (Korea)

July 2019VLBI Network

Ultimate Goal…

VLBI for
Geodynamics/Geodesy

Also to join Asia-Oceania VLBI Group(http://www.spacegeodesy.go.jp/vlbi/AOV/index.html)

 Part of IVS: Japan, Korea,

China, Australia, New
Zealand Indonesia is in the

middle And other groups: Vera-

KVN, EVN, LBA, VLBA, etc

Part I: Radio Telescope for National Observatory (2-5 years)
 20 m class at Timau site Working in several bands: L, S,

C, X, Ku, K, Ka (1 – 44 GHz) For VLBI of astrometry andgeodesy

Private communication with Y-C. Minh andM.Honma, since 2014
One of KVN Station

Part II: VLBI station at Jatiluhur(Conversion of Telecommunication Antenna,1-3 years)
 Cooperation with Indosat-

Ooredoo Use their 32 m antenna:
dish conversion into radio
telescope There are similar projects
in more than 25 countries!
(Ghana Dish Conversion Workshop,
January 2019)

Cooperation
with Indosat-Ooredoo

December 2018

Important Issues
 Surface and supporting structure Motors and mechanical system
 New drive system, astronomical tracking
 Remote observing system?
 Installation of astronomical receiver at C-band using

the existing feed for testing
 Etc

Mechanical Inspection

Azimuth drive

They are in goodcondition….
Elevation driveSurface, Drive Controller, and Receiver Room

Antenna Drive Unit (ADU)

Surface

Antenna Control Unit (ACU)AWS Installation and RFI Measurements

September 2019

Equipment for VLBI system
Front End

Back End

L feedS/X feed
C feedK feed (22 GHz; 1.35 cm)
LNA for each band

L-band receiver
S/X-band receiverC-band receiverK-band receiverHydrogen Maser
Digital Base Band Converter (DBBC)
Recorder Mark 5C
Phase calibrator (pcal) unit
Dewar for receiver

Supporting System
Media (hard drives)
PCs, UPS, racks, tools, misc, etc
Lightning Protection
Gigabit internetOther Antennas

1. Engineering expertise
2. Budgeting
3. Time frame

The 27.5 m antenna

The 18.3 m Antenna for Geodetic VLBI at Bosscha site?

Wishing to join you soon…

Thank You Very Much!