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MacGregor and Connors’s students pointing their radio antennas to the sky outside Duane Physics.

Assistant Professor of Astrophysics Meredith MacGregor and NIST Physicist Jake Connors taught their graduate students how to build and use radio horn antennas to locate neutral hydrogen in space.

Their novel idea: Why not teach students how to build and use pyramidal horn antennas as do-it-yourself radio telescopes?

State-of-the-art radio antennas can cost billions of dollars, but perfectly serviceable ones can be made for less than $100.

For the horn, which acts as a radio-signal funnel, students used metallized home insulation. And for the waveguide, which picks up the signal at the narrow end of the horn, they used olive oil cans from Whole Foods.

Graduate student Jay Chittidi said building the antennas “was one of the most engaging hands-on labs that I have had as a grad student.”