WTH! Wok the Hydrogen: Measurement of Galactic Neutral Hydrogen in Noisy Urban Environment Using Kitchenware
2023/09/26 by Leo W. H. Fung, Fung, Leo W. H., Albert Wai Kit Lau +5 · 15 voices · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph.IM #physics.ed-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2309.15163
openalex publication_date 2023/09/26 · openalex created_date 2023/10/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract
Astronomy observation is difficult in urban environments due to the background noise generated by human activities. Consequently, promoting astronomy in metropolitan areas is challenging. In this work, we propose a low-cost, educational experiment called Wok the Hydrogen (WTH) that offers opportunities for scientific observation in urban environments, specifically the observation of the 21 cm (f21 = 1420.4 MHz) emission from neutral hydrogen in the Milky Way. We demonstrate how to construct a radio telescope using kitchenware, along with additional electronic equipment that can be easily purchased online. The total system cost is controlled within 150 dollars. We also outline the subsequent data analysis procedures for deriving the recession velocity of galactic hydrogen from the raw data. The system was tested on the campus of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, which is located approximately 2 km northeast of the nearest residential area with a population of 0.4 million and about 10 km east of the downtown area with a population of 2 million. We show that a precision of Δv ≈ ± 20 km s-1 can be achieved for determining the recession velocity of neutral hydrogen with this relatively simple setup, and the precision can be further improved with longer exposure time.
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Discussions
- Wok The Hydrogen ! In this paper they describe how they measure galactic neutral hydrogen (21 cm line) using an antenna made from a wok. The cost including the readout system is ~ $150 arxiv.org/abs/2 [bsky, 30 points, 4 comments]
- Very cool paper on the arXiv today about building your own Galactic neutral hydrogen detector using kitchenware! Really excited to try this out. Just need to get a few woks... 🤩🧪🔭 arxiv.org/abs/230 [bsky, 24 points, 0 comments]
- Best #astronomy title of the day (contents are nice also) "WTH! Wok the Hydrogen: Measurement of Galactic Neutral Hydrogen in Noisy Urban Environment Using Kitchenware" arxiv.org/abs/2309.15163 Fou [bsky, 23 points, 1 comments]
- Paper title du jour arxiv.org/abs/2309.15163 [bsky, 4 points, 1 comments]
- Measurement of Galactic Neutral Hydrogen in Noisy Urban Locale Using Kitchenware [hn, 2 points, 0 comments]
- Want to make a radio telescope for $150 and a wok? These researchers have you covered: arxiv.org/abs/2309.15163 🔭📡 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- Measurement of Galactic Neutral Hydrogen in Noisy Environment Using Kitchenware [hn, 1 points, 0 comments]
- Wok the Hydrogen: Measuring Galactic Neutral Hydrogen Using Kitchenware [PDF] [hn, 1 points, 1 comments]
- Building radio telescopes using kitchenware! Amateur astronomy people are probably unsung heroes of modern day independent/amateur research culture. Granted - this paper comes from people in the trade [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]
- More enjoyable is probably this: arxiv.org/abs/2309.15163 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- My work is based on the Wok the Hydrogen project by a team at University of Singapore arxiv.org/abs/2309.15163 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- How to measure the motion of cold atomic hydrogen gas in the Galaxy at 21cm using a wok and other kitchen implements: Fung et al., 2023, "WTH! Wok the Hydrogen: Measurement of Galactic Neutral Hydrog [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- WTH! Wok the Hydrogen: Measurement of Galactic Neutral Hydrogen in Noisy Urban Environment Using Kitchenware arxiv.org/abs/2309.15163 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- I love everything about this arxiv.org/abs/2309.15163 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
- Radio astronomy with a wok: arxiv.org/abs/2309.15163 🔭📡 [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]
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