SAO-Harvard Radio Telescope Is Installed

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Date: 1968

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Summary

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory-Harvard College Observatory Radio Telescope is installed at Harvard University's George R. Agassiz Station. Directed by A. Edward Lilley, the project took three years to install the 26 meter/84 foot diameter precision paraboloid antenna on an existing pedestal at the station. A new counterweight system was installed. A survey of the telescope's surface was completed, the system noise temperature was measured, and the telescope was placed on a regular operational basis. Joseph F. Hayes also developed a small laboratory for constructing and testing parametric amplifiers. The telescope was acquired by the Smithsonian through the U.S. Army Materiel Command in Huntsville, Alabama. The telescope will be used to investigate atomic and molecular constituents in the interstellar medium.

Subject

  • Lilley, A. Edward
  • Hayes, Joseph F
  • Harvard College Observatory
  • George R. Agassiz Station of the Harvard College Observatory
  • Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
  • Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory-Harvard College Observatory Radio Telescope
  • United States Army Materiel Command

Category

Chronology of Smithsonian History

Notes

Smithsonian Year, 1968, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1968, p. 470.

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

1968

Topic

  • Astrophysicists
  • Observatories
  • Cambridge, MA
  • Radio astronomy
  • Astrophysics
  • Instruments
  • Scientific apparatus and instruments
  • Telescopes
  • Astronomy

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