Kenneth Ward, an electronics engineer at Green Bank, examines the ends of fiber cables to make an accurately aligned connection.
Electronics Labs in New Mexico
The entire basement level of the Array Operations Center in Socorro, New Mexico is a huge electronics design and development laboratory. Over a dozen experts in receiver and data signal engineering maintain and innovate our radio telescope technology, making us the world’s premier radio astronomy technology developers.
Dish of the 85-3
85-3 was the third 85-foot telescope kit purchased from the Blaw-Knox Corporation. In 1967, it joined the 85-2 and 85-1, also known as the Howard E. Tatel 85-foot telescope, to expand the NRAO’s first array, the Green Bank Interferometer.
When the GBI was not in use, the 85-3 was used on its own as a pulsar observing tool. From 1989 until 2010, it monitored pulsar timing and brightness for scientists at Princeton, Berkeley, and Oberlin College. About 35 pulsars were observed every day at frequencies of 610 and 327 MHz.
US Naval Observatory at Green Bank
The 20-meter telescope arrived as a guest at Green Bank in 1994. It was built by RSI and installed by the US Naval Observatory as a member of its various Earth observing programs. In 2000, USNO cutbacks shut it down, but we kept it running to use as a receiver-testing telescope. In 2012, it became the first radio telescope in the UNC’s Skynet project of remotely-controlled educational telescopes.
Skynet’s First Radio Telescope
The 20-meter telescope arrived as a guest at Green Bank in 1994. It was built by RSI and installed by the US Naval Observatory as a member of its various Earth observing programs. In 2000, USNO cutbacks shut it down, but we kept it running to use as a receiver-testing telescope. In 2012, it became the first radio telescope in the UNC’s Skynet project of remotely-controlled educational telescopes.
Educational Telescopes
The 20-meter and the 40-foot telescopes in Green Bank, West Virginia are full-time educational telescopes used by students around the country. School groups pitch their tents at the 40-foot during their observations. The 20-meter, however, can be run over the Internet through the University of North Carolina’s Skynet program.