Prof. Ralph E. Spencer


Professor Emeritus of Radio Astronomy in the School of Physics and Astronomy of The University of Manchester. My office is at the Jodrell Bank Observatory

Research:

My current research interests concern the radio properties of Microquasars, radio emitting X-ray binaries in our own galaxy. These objects show micro-scale versions of the characteristics of the much more distant and powerful quasars, with relativistic jets but with variation of their properties in timescales on minute to days rather than the many years typical of quasars.
The transient nature of these objects has also led me to pursue research into Fast Radio Bursts and also the nano-second wide pulse emitted by cosmic ray air showers interacting in the atmosphere on in the regolith of the moon. We plan to use the facilities at Jodrell Bank to study these objects, initially by investigating the rapid time scale local RF interference environment.

Much of my time was spent on technical development. This includes the use of high data rate transmission on optical fibres used in e-MERLIN and VLBI and wide band and the Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA).

Teaching:

I have given courses on Electronics, Physics of Extragalactic Sources, Astronomy, Physics of the Atmosphere, Data Analysis, Radio Interferometry, Image Processing, Physics of the Interstellar Medium and Stars and Stellar Evolution

Address:
Prof R. E. Spencer,
University of Manchester,
Jodrell Bank Observatory,
Macclesfield,
Cheshire,
SK11 9DL,
UK.

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