Construction of a Radio Telescope Designed to Observe HI 21 cm Line

We constructed a radio telescope capable of observing the 1420 MHz emission line of neutral hydrogen (HI) following guides from the Digital Signal Processing in Radio Astronomy group at West Virginia University. We used basic building materials such as wood, fasteners, aluminum flashing, and aluminum foam board; a low noise amplifier; and software defined radio to collect the HI signal. We present observations of Galactic HI and discuss its motion as determined by Doppler shift calculations. Using our signal detected and velocity measurements, we calculated HI column densities in various directions. We compare our results to published values and discuss discrepancies.