Tools of Radio Astronomy

This textbook addresses students as well as practitioners. It attempts to give an outline of the methods and tools of radio astronomy needed by the astronomer who wants to relate the message from interstellar space to physical processes. It gives a unified treatment of the entire field of radioastronomy from centimetre to sub-millimetre wavelength ranges, including single telescopes as well as interferometric devices. It describes the basic physical principles and gives a reasonably complete outline of the instruments and methods of measurement and analysis using both continuum radiation and spectral lines. The authors discuss applications for investigating, for example, HI clouds, molecular gas clouds, ionized gas regions, and synchrotron and thermal bremsstrahlung mechanisms.
This second edition has been largely rewritten and expanded. It includes the most recent developments in astronomy.