Introduction to Radio Astronomy and Interferometry

• Radio astronomy uses radio waves to study regions of space.
• Single-dish radio telescopes produce blurry images.
• Interferometry is a technique used to overcome the blurring and produce sharper radio images.
• The spacing between the radio telescope dishes in an interferometer determines the size of the objects that can be resolved by the interferometer.
• Using many dishes together in an interferometer array allows astronomers to form more complete images of objects.
• This is how an aperture synthesis telescope such as the Australia Telescope Compact Array works.
  
• VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) enables very small objects to be clearly resolved.

This page is maintained by Michelle Storey
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