Pulsar Detection with Student-Built Radio Telescopes: A Low-Cost Framework for Authentic STEM Engagement
Year: 2026
Type: dataset
Abstract: RFI Masking and Pulsar Signal‑to‑Noise Evaluation Notebook Supplementary Material for the Astronomy Education Journal (AEJ) This repository contains the Python notebook and dataset used as supplementary instructional material for the Astronomy Education Journal (AEJ). The notebook demonstrates a complete introductory radio‑astronomy data‑processing workflow, including RFI mitigation, incoherent dedispersion, period refinement, pulse‑profile generation, and signal‑to‑noise evaluation. These data correspond to the raw observations used to generate Figure 8 in the associated AEJ article. The dataset consists of a 7,200‑second HDF5 filterbank‑like recording obtained with an Airspy Mini at 6 MSPS using the Umbrella Telescope on 2025‑11‑24. The complex voltage stream was channelized into 100 frequency channels at 1 ms resolution, producing a time–frequency array of shape (7,200,000 × 100). The notebook applies several standard RFI‑mitigation techniques—MAD clipping, bandpass‑based masking, birdie masking, FFT‑domain periodic‑RFI suppression, and median replacement—before dedispersing and folding the signal from PSR B0329+54. The topocentric pulse period is computed using Astropy’s barycentric time‑conversion utilities, and the final folded profiles are compared in terms of signal‑to‑noise ratio. A fully executable version of the notebook is also available on Google Colab: https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1oo8t-PpwHpcmcE1_z7dMphhmoCGwF9cg?usp=sharing This material is intended solely for educational use in astronomy courses and workshops. It is not designed to serve as a research‑grade pulsar‑analysis pipeline, and its outputs should not be used for scientific interpretation. For professional pulsar data reduction, readers should rely on established tools such as PRESTO, as described in the main AEJ article. Related Publication This supplementary notebook and dataset support the following article: Asayama, S., & Taylor, M. (2026). Pulsar Detection with Student‑Built Radio Telescopes: A Low‑Cost Framework for Authentic STEM Engagement. Astronomy Education Journal, accepted.
Authors: Asayama, Shin'ichiro, Taylor, Matthew
Institution: SKA Observatory
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7168356414