Humble Beginnings
The NRAO set up its Green Bank Observatory offices in an old farm house owned by the Beard family. It was later nicknamed ‘The Nutbin” — not for reasons one may think, but because the gutters collected falling nuts from that tree behind it. The Nutbin was also a laboratory, and these first telescopes on site sent their radio wave data directly to the astronomers working inside the Nutbin. From left to right, the telescopes are a feed horn sticking out of the window, a 12-foot, and a 20-foot. These were used to test radio interference and atmospheric conditions.
Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF
