Page Twelve
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Friday, April 5, 1968
THE MICI4IGAN DAiLY Friday, April 5, 1968
U,
Radio
Telescope: Giant
Ear
on
the
ne
A RESEARCHER WORKS ON THE TELESCOPE'S EQUIPMENT,
qk
SILHOUETTED AGAINST THE SKY, THE UNIVERITY'S 85-FOOT RADIO TELESCOPE RECEIVES SIGNALS FROM OBJECTS MILLIONS OF
MILES OUT IN SPACE
By GEORGE MILLER
For the past twelve years, the
University's Radio Astronomy Ob-,
servatory has made significant
contributions to the science of
astronomy.
Located on Peach Mountain
near Dexter, the observatory has
participated in investigations of
unexpected- sources of radio
waves, knowndas quasi-stellar
sources, thousands of millions of
light years away. It is also invol-
ved in helping develop new meth-
ods of measurement of the moon,
sun, and planets.
For example, the radio tele-
scope at the installation was the
first to detect variations of inten-
sity in the radio emissions from
quasi-stellar objects.
University radio astronomers
are also engaged in temperature
measurement of the planets. Such
studies of Saturn and Mercury
were first done with the 85-foot
radio telescope.
The major installation of the
observatory is the steerable radio
telescope.
The reflector dish of the instru-
ment is 86 feet in diameter and
over 12 feet deep. The reflector
surface consists of curved alumi-
num sheet panels. As a solid dish,
this instrument is thus more ef-
fective at shorter wavelengths
than radio telescopes not of solid
dish construction.
The solid-dish design ranks the
Peach Mountain installation as
one of the best in the world in
the ability to spot fine detail.
The body of the telescope con-
sists of galvanized structural steel
of bolted construction. The giant
telescope rests on a foundation 9f
three concrete blocks weighing a
total of 710 tons. The telescope
itself weighs over 200 tons.
The radio telescope collects en-
ergy from objects in space in a
sensitive radio receiver and am-
plifies it several million times to
a level large enough to drive a
data-recording instrument.
The amplified signal from the
receiver remains at a nearly con-
stant level until a radio source
enters the field of the antenna.
This causes a change in the sig-
nal level, which is then recorded
in one of three forms:
- an ink-line tracing of the
change in signal level produced by
a paper-strip recorder, also known
as the chart read-ouf;
- a magnetic tape on which is
recorded data from a digital com-
puter; or
- a visual display on an oscil-
loscope..
Data on the magnetic tape is
processed by the University's
computer and the results are
printed out for the observer's use.
The observatory program began
in 1956 and has been supported
annually by funds from the Office
of Naval Research. The radio
telescope was added in 1958 at a
cost of about $270,000.
The facility is used primarily
by graduate students and senior
engineers who build, design and
use the complex equipment. In
charge of the observatory is Prof.
Fred T. Haddock of the astrono-
my and electrical engineering de-
partments.
Photographed
by
BERN I E BAKER'
AN OBSERVER OPERATES ONE OF THE CONTROLS OF THE GIANT RADIO TELESCOPE
OBSERVER WATCHES THE CHART READ-OUT AS IT TRACES THE
FLUCTUATIONS IN RADIO WAVES
THE GIANT DISH LISTENS FOR SIGNALS FROM SPACE
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