Observations of the Vela pulsar with a low-cost, 2.4m radio telescope at Woodchester Observatory

Abstract We demonstrate a low-cost radio telescope using a 2.4-m satellite dish, an inexpensive printer circuit board (PCB)-based dual-pole antenna and commodity-off-the-shelf components. Open-source, radio acquisition and professional pulsar processing tools are used to successfully monitor on a daily basis the Southern Hemisphere pulsar J0835−4510 (the Vela pulsar) at 820 MHz as it transits the meridian. The system successfully detected a ‘glitch’ in the Vela pulsar in real-time at Woodchester Observatory in South Australia. Woodchester represents a good balance of bandwidth, observation time, and cost to achieve scientifically interesting results on pulsar timing for amateur radio astronomy and/or STEM outreach projects.