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In the early 1960s, this parabolic horn antenna, affectionately known as the “sugar scoop,” was used by staff at Green Bank. A suite of other antennas surrounded this farmhouse, known as the Mary Beard house. Together, these antennas helped astronomers and engineers know the atmospheric conditions facing them as they built the giant telescopes that would soon dominate Green Bank.

The Green Bank site, circa 1962, viewed from the northeast. The bright white dish of the first telescope erected here, the 85-foot Howard E. Tatel, is in the middle, and behind it, to the left, sits the upward-looking mesh dish of the 300-foot. To the right of the Tatel, construction cranes flank the growing concrete base of the 140-foot.

The Green Bank site, circa 1971, viewed from the southwest. The largest dish is the 300-foot with its new surface panels. Behind it to the left is the 140-foot (43-meter), still the largest polar-aligned telescope in the world. And the line of three identical dishes is the Green Bank Interferometer (GBI), the 85-footers working together as our first array. Their control building is off the connecting road to the left, and the tower with the dish atop collects data from a fourth, remote telescope of the array.

The unique 140-foot telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia stands 200 feet tall. This giant telescope took six years to design and construct, and then took the astronomical world by storm in its discoveries of organic molecules in space. A 140-foot (43-meter) aluminum-clad parabolic dish antenna sits on the world’s largest polar-aligned mount. The rounded yoke swivels around the central axis of the telescope which is aligned perfectly with the rotational axes of the Earth. In this way, the telescope can easily track objects in the sky as they appear to rise and set from the Earth’s spin on its axis.

This 140-foot aluminum-clad parabolic dish antenna sits on the world’s largest polar-aligned mount. The rounded yoke swivels around the central axis of the telescope which is aligned perfectly with the rotational axes of the Earth. In this way, the 43-meter dish can easily track objects in the sky as they appear to rise and set from the Earth’s spin on its axis. The small white tower to the left is rolled up to the telescope when the dish is lowered to the ground for engineers to work on the prime focus at the tips of the four support legs.