In a rocky field off a private road halfway between Perth and Smiths Falls, Ont., three amateur astronomers gaze skyward, looking for the next big thing.
They’re not peering through telescopes — at least not the kind you’re probably picturing.
Instead, they use cast-off satellite dishes to detect and translate the radio waves that all warm celestial bodies emit — objects that are often invisible to optical telescopes.
“Our eyes are good for optical wavelengths — we can see colours and that sort of thing — but the universe is actually much more complicated than that,” explained Marcus Leech, current president of the Canadian Centre for Experimental Radio Astronomy (CCERA).
“Radio telescopes are just telescopes for radio waves. So it’s just another way of looking at the universe.”
We’re doing big science on an extremely modest budget.– Doug Yuill, CCERA
Interstellar space is full of dust that can obscure our optical view of stars, planets, galaxies and other objects, Leech said.
“A lot of optical observations can’t see these objects behind the dust. Radio astronomy sees them just fine.”
CCERA members Gary Atkins, left, Leech, centre, and Doug Yuill inside the donated trailer that’s the new nerve centre of their observatory. Last December, the astronomers found themselves homeless due to ‘an unfortunate confluence of both corporate and municipal politics,’ Leech says. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
Grassroots science
This is grassroots science at its least glamorous. There are no white lab coats or state-of-the-art observatories.
Instead, Leech, along with colleagues Gary Atkins and Doug Yuill, spent their spring and summer mixing and pouring concrete, salvaging discarded satellite dishes and retrofitting the donated trailer that now serves as their operation’s nerve centre — all in a race against the onset of winter.
“We had to switch our focus to just surviving, finding a new place to be and then setting up that new place,” Leech said.
WATCH | Astronomers ready to stargaze again after eviction from former home:
DIY astronomers ready to stargaze again after being evicted from former Smiths Falls home
2 hours ago
Marcus Leech, president of the Canadian Centre for Experimental Radio Astronomy, says the organization is getting settled after finding a new home in Rideau Ferry. The group of amateur astronomers uses cast-off satellite dishes to detect radio waves that come from celestial bodies. 2:31
CCERA is a non-profit association that “supports education and research in radio astronomy techniques and applications targeted at smaller institutions and interested individuals,” its website says. It has an advisory board made up of some of the world’s top astronomers, who provide advice on an ad-hoc basis, and publishes its findings on its website.
It formed after the Canadian Space Agency decided in 2013 to dismantle an 18-metre dish that the astronomers were using in Shirleys Bay, a conservation area on the Ottawa River. They moved their operation to the Gallipeau Centre in Smiths Falls, in eastern Ontario, but last December — owing to what Leech describes as “an unfortunate confluence of both corporate and municipal politics” — they found themselves homeless once again.
After finding a plot of flat, clear land, the group spent the spring and summer erecting four parabolic dishes that act as radio telescopes. A fifth, larger dish will likely be installed next year. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
So the astronomers found a 15-hectare plot of flat, clear land in the small community of Rideau Ferry, struck a long-term “access arrangement” with the owner and in March began moving in. Now, eight months later, they’re nearly ready to roll.
Having an unobstructed view of the sky is as essential for radio astronomy as it is for optical astronomy, Leech said, because even trees emit microwave radiation that can interfere with their observations. Likewise, being “in the middle of nowhere” narrows the chance of man-made interference of all kinds.
The astronomers have installed four parabolic satellite dishes near their trailer: one hydrogen spectrometer, painted like a big yellow happy face, and three more dishes honed in on fast radio bursts, or FRBs, a phenomenon Leech describes as the current “darling” of the astrophysics community.
A fifth, larger dish is piled in pieces nearby, waiting to be assembled and mounted, likely next year.
Anomalies on a graph can indicate the presence of a celestial object. ‘We look for squiggly lines on graphs, basically, and we get excited about those,’ Leech says. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
The radio signals they’re trying to capture are “insanely weak,” Leech said — in fact, the combined energy from all of the signals detected since the discovery of radio astronomy in the 1930s “would keep a candle going for maybe half an hour. That’s it.”
While there are complex networks of radio telescopes capable of translating those invisible signals into sky maps and other images, CCERA’s current setup is not.
This image from the Virginia-based National Radio Astronomy Observatory shows spiral galaxy NGC 4254 in the Virgo Cluster. It combines radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) showing molecular gas in red and orange, and optical imagery captured by the Hubble Space Telescope showing stars in white and blue. Few radio astronomy observatories are capable of producing this kind of image. (ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Dagnello (NRAO))
“We look for squiggly lines on graphs, basically, and we get excited about those,” Leech said.
To the passionate radio astronomer, those anomalies are just as energizing as any pretty picture.
“The first time you see that squiggly line is actually really exciting, because you realize that … this thing happened 750 million years ago, and today it’s making a little squiggly line on your instrument — and that can be exciting for the right kind of person, I guess.”
Leech developed a passion for radio astronomy in high school. Now semi-retired after a career in high-tech, he devotes much of his time to his original interest. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
Lofty goals on shoestring budget
Leech said he’s been “obsessed” with radio astronomy since he was in high school — though he was lured into the high-tech world, spending nearly 20 years at Nortel. Now semi-retired, he’s returning to his first passion.
This may be a shoestring operation, but CCERA’s goals are as lofty as the objects they’re trying to observe.
“I think being the first to discover the radio emissions of a new supernova before the optical guys see it, that would be a real feather in our cap,” Leech said. “Our first confirmed FRB would be a major, major achievement for an amateur effort, and so that’s our hope.”
Happy now? The astronomers decided to give their hydrogen spectrometer a new look at their new home. (Francis Ferland/CBC)
But since their eviction from their former base in Smiths Falls, CCERA’s main focus has been on earthly survival, not the stars.
Historically, the group has relied on donations, as well as a partnership with Carleton University’s undergraduate astrophysics program. The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled in-person classes, however, shutting down that source of revenue.
Leech estimates the group needs about $20,000 a year to operate. For now, they’re scraping by however they can. Often, that means reaching into their own pockets.
“We’re doing big science on an extremely modest budget,” Yuill said.
But they know the payoff could be astronomical, scientifically speaking at least.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
![](https://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/121/923/astronomy.png?crop=1.777xh:h;*,*&downsize=510px:* 510w")
