More Than Meets the Eye
The 40-foot telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia is a lightweight, transit telescope. In 1962, it became the world’s first full-automated radio telescope. From 1961 until 1967, the 40-foot merrily went along observing a small catalog of radio sources whose brightness change over time. The data it collected traveled from the telescope’s prime focus receiver through a cable (at left) and into a control building. In 1987, it was re-purposed as an educational telescope.
Credit: B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
