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Lecture by Ed Harfmann and Pablo Lewin, amateur radio astronomers, Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA)

Radio astronomy began in 1931 when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories discovered mysterious static from the Milky Way.
While professional astronomers ignored Jansky’s discovery, Grote Reber built the first parabolic metal dish antenna and was the first to map the
radio sky. Eventually, astronomers paid attention, and the field of radio astronomy exploded in 1960s, but amateurs have remained active
observing the sky. Unlike optical astronomy, radio astronomy can be conducted at any time, even during daylight. Radio astronomy has made
multiple discoveries and led to several Nobel prizes. Thanks to radio astronomy, we can “see” and map black holes. Radio astronomers can map
the location and distribution of atomic gases, simple compounds (water, ammonia, etc.) and complex organic compounds (methanol,
formaldehyde, ethanol, etc.).

About Our Speakers
Ed Harfmann has been an avid radio astronomer since 2013. He lives in Lafayette, IN where he observes, and has
observed at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia. He is a member of SARA and the Wabash Astronomical Society (over 30 years). Ed
recently retired as a software developer (C, C++, C#). He now focuses on outreach, giving popular lectures explaining radio astronomy, its history
and how others can participate. He is working with a friend to detect pulsars. Ed currently serves as director at SARA.
Pablo Lewin lives in Glendora, CA, where he operates two privately owned roll-off-roof observatories, where he has conducted thousands of follow-
up observations of near-Earth objects and minor planets. Pablo is a member of SARA, the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, American
Association of Variable Star Observers (contributed more than 70,000 observations!), and TESS Subgroup 1 (over 400 exoplanet observations).
His radio astronomy equipment includes a 2.1-meter hydrogen-line and two 70-cm Discovery radio telescopes dishes. He is an avid user of artificial
intelligence; experimenting with AI-assisted techniques for processing, analyzing and interpreting radio telescope data. Pablo has been a radio
operator for over 51 years (call sign WA6RSV). He has been a licensed pilot for 48 years and spent 36 years flying for TWA and American Airlines.

Meeting Logistics
This is a hybrid meeting that will take place in person at the Los Altos Library and over Zoom. The talk is pre-recorded, followed up with a live Q&A session over Zoom with Pablo Lewin.

If attending in person:
Find us in the Orchard Room at the Los Altos Library, Los Altos, California.

If attending over Zoom:
Those who RSVP here will be able to see the Zoom link.

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