Recording CMBR?

[Cosmic Microwave TV Dinne]

We are two artists interested in capturing a high(ish) quality recording of the CMB. We have just begun our first wave of research into the topic and are hoping for a little direction. Is it even possible to acquire a clean recording of the CMB without the use of expensive and inaccessible telescope arrays? Where might we find affordable hardware that can receive VHF waves, and would they be able to hear the CMB through the background noise of civilization?


We've come to the conclusion that sending a weather ballon equipped with an antenna and some recording equipment into the stratosphere would be neat but we aren't quite sure this is the most direct, or inexpensive, way to capture the CMB.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[antoniseb]

It sounds like your plans are to somehow convert it into audio signal. I'm not sure you'd get anything audible without some kind of translation step.

Why no just ask one of the teams that have already collected it?

[trinitree88]

Take an old VHF TV set, turn it to a station with no signal. The speckling little dots of TV "snow" are mostly from the CMBR. You'll have to figure the way to convert them to audio. pete :think:

[iantresman]

Take an old VHF TV set, turn it to a station with no signal. The speckling little dots of TV "snow" are mostly from the CMBR. You'll have to figure the way to convert them to audio. pete :think:

I believe that it is only a few percent of the dots that contribute to TV snow. See:

"Properties of Cosmic Light" (http://background.uchicago.edu/~whu/beginners/properties.html)
"The Switch to Digital Switches off Big Bang TV Signa (http://www.universetoday.com/25560/the-switch-to-digital-switches-off-big-bang-tv-signal/)l"

[Jeff Root]

I doubt that they intend to convert the CMB "signal" to audio,
since it is pure noise. Actually, I think, be the higher quality
the reception, the less "signal" there will be. Perfect reception
of the CMB would result in perfectly silent audio.

I agree with Ian that only a tiny portion of the "snow" seen
on a TV screen with no manmade signal is from the CMB.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[WayneFrancis]

actually the CMBR wouldn't be so much noise as it would be ..well a single tone. The variation of the CMBR is less then 1 part in 10,000. Not much of a change in tone.
IE listen to a tone at 10,000hz. Then listen to a tone at 10,001. Rapidly change between the 2. I'm not sure if the human ear can pick up the oscillation.

To boot the 1 in 10,000 difference is from different points in the sky. Pointing your receiver at one spot you'd get even less variation.

[Jeff Root]

There wouldn't be any tone. A tone results from a periodic
oscillation of the signal strength. With the cosmic microwave
background, if you have a good enough receiver to get a strong
"signal", you will have a constant "signal" strength with no
oscillation. Like a constant DC voltage. With a weak "signal" it
will just be noise. Like a randomly varying DC voltage.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

[WayneFrancis]

I'm assuming they want to change the frequency of light into a frequency of sound.

[cjameshuff]

actually the CMBR wouldn't be so much noise as it would be ..well a single tone. The variation of the CMBR is less then 1 part in 10,000. Not much of a change in tone.

The CMBR is not a coherent monochromatic source, it is about the furthest thing from it...a near perfect black-body spectrum. If converted to the audible range, it would sound like noise. Those minor variations refer to differences in temperature and intensity, not in frequency of a pure tone.

[WayneFrancis]

All right lets stop assuming things.. What do you mean by "recording"? How do you propose to convert your CMBR signal to your final product?

[Strange]

Isn't it the equivalent of thermal noise in a resistor; which is approximately white.

[trinitree88]

I believe that it is only a few percent of the dots that contribute to TV snow. See:

"Properties of Cosmic Light" (http://background.uchicago.edu/~whu/beginners/properties.html)
"The Switch to Digital Switches off Big Bang TV Signa (http://www.universetoday.com/25560/the-switch-to-digital-switches-off-big-bang-tv-signal/)l"


ian. I stand corrected. pete