Prime Focus Feed Horn

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Prime Focus Feed Horn

Engineer with the feed horn for the GBT's Prime Focus Receiver

A telescope engineer readies a feed horn to funnel radio waves into a receiver on the Green Bank Telescope’s Prime Focus. This is where the radio waves come together after they have reflected off of the telescope’s 100-meter dish.

The GBT’s huge metal feed arm towers 200 feet above the dish, ending in a retractable boom at the Prime Focus. Radio waves can pour directly into a receiver cradled in a metal-framed box on the boom. The boom can tilt and twist to align the receiver perfectly to the incoming waves.

Credit: B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF

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