In Brewster, Washington sits this 25-meter antenna of the Very Long Baseline Array, a collection of ten identical antennas placed on sites from Hawai’i to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Data from each of the antennas is shipped to the Array Operations Center in Socorro, New Mexico to be digitally combined.
The 45-foot outlier of the Green Bank Interferometer
The 45-foot portable radio telescope replaced the less accurate 42-foot as the fourth element in the Green Bank Interferometer. In this photo from 1974, the 45-foot is 20 miles from Green Bank on a knoll in Huntersville. The tower beside it transmitted the telescope’s data to the GBI’s control building.
Looking Down on Green Bank’s 45-foot outlier
The 45-foot telescope and its trailer control room are not the only highlight In this aerial shot of Green Bank, West Virginia. One of the old blue diesel vehicles used on site is on its way through the gates that separate the protected telescope zone from the rest of the facility.
The 45-foot on an Autumn day
After 15 years working as the fourth remote member of the Green Bank Interferometer (GBI), the 45-foot claimed a permanent home at the Observatory. In this photo, the 45-foot was engaged in solar observations, watching the Sun all day to provide up-to-the-minute information about sudden changes in its output.
Green Bank’s 42-foot portable telescope
Through 1976, this 42-foot portable radio telescope served as the fourth, remote member of the Green Bank Interferometer (GBI), the testbed for the Very Large Array (VLA). The 42-foot’s trailer integrated the telescope’s donut-shaped drive and a small control room, and during moves, it carried the disassembled dish as stacked panels. This photo was taken in 1967, when the telescope was assembled and tested in Green Bank.
Green Bank’s 45-foot telescope retires
At the conclusion of 15 years of a successful nomadic phase as a fourth remote telescope for the Green Bank Interferometer (GBI), the 45-foot settled on piers at Green Bank in 1988. NASA converted it into a tracking station for orbiting satellites. Now, it’s been turned into a dedicated solar telescope.