Major
Physics
Anticipated Graduation Year
2026
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
The telescope dome on top of Cudahy Science Hall is currently without a telescope, due to the vibrational noise from the Red Line trains which pass closely by, roughly every five minutes. In this work, we design and implement an experiment to characterize the excess noise signal generated by these trains, working towards the future implantation of a new telescope. We construct simple geophones to detect the vibrational signal, which is then analyzed using power spectral density (PSD) estimates. We consider the effects of location, time of day, and detector noise on our analysis and discuss potential implications.
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Dr. Jon Bougie
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Characterizing the Red Line Noise Curve
The telescope dome on top of Cudahy Science Hall is currently without a telescope, due to the vibrational noise from the Red Line trains which pass closely by, roughly every five minutes. In this work, we design and implement an experiment to characterize the excess noise signal generated by these trains, working towards the future implantation of a new telescope. We construct simple geophones to detect the vibrational signal, which is then analyzed using power spectral density (PSD) estimates. We consider the effects of location, time of day, and detector noise on our analysis and discuss potential implications.