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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.

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.

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.

The 42-foot portable radio telescope (right) working next to the permanent 40-foot telescope at Green Bank, West Virginia. From 1967 through 1976, the 42-foot served as the fourth, remote member of the Green Bank Interferometer (GBI), the test array for the Very Large Array (VLA). The 42-foot’s trailer carried the dish as stacked panels and included a built-in, donut-shaped drive and a small control room.

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.