Surplus PrimeStar Dishes => Radio Telescope Array?

Sean Clifford asks: "Anyone have suggestions on how to get started setting up an amateur radio telescope array using a ton of old PrimeStar dishes? I've read a couple of articles like this one, that makes this idea seem good in theory. Adapting some gear for RVs to steer the dishes should be simple, but does anyone know of good open source software for controlling them? And *nix software for collecting, filtering, and analyzing the data would be sweet too. I've got a couple of hundred dishes in the back yard at work that are screaming for some type of use other than recycling. I'm already adapting a couple for a wireless network, but would like to see what I can do with the rest."

Comments

Phasing

[Detritus]

I'm not an RF guy, but I work around microwave antennas and receivers. Combining multiple feeds, from one antenna or multiple antennas, is tricky, esp. at microwave frequencies. For the frequency of interest, the feeds must be in phase with each other. You need to be able to adjust the phasing for maximum output from the combiner. If you want to do interferometry, it gets a lot more complicated.