Quote:
Originally Posted by gary
Hi Robert,
Grote Reber had a degree in Electrical Engineering.
Born in the US, he began experimenting in the late 1930's and there
was a period of a decade where it is said he was the world's only radio astronomer.
In the 1950's he moved to Tasmania where he continued to work.
The University of Tasmania runs a museum in his honor.
See http://www.groterebermuseum.org.au/ |
Gary,
Thanks for your very interesting Engineering perspective on radio astronomy.
I
merely read the papers that radio astronomers write, so I am
spared the extreme complexity of the process by which they get their observational results.
I sometimes find that radio astronomers are strange people; there are some I have corresponded with who were so "radio specialized" that they were apparently unaware of very relevant observational data from other wavelength regimes!
I happened upon the 26 meter Mt Pleasant Radio Telescope and the nearby Grote Reber Museum (the location is not far from Hobart), just by chance. The museum is usually closed, unless you make a special arrangement.
A lot of the time I was in cloudy Tasmania, I remember thinking "what a good climate for radio astronomy!"
As you have indicated, the popular story is:
that Reber built a 9-meter paraboloidal radio dish
in his back yard in 1937
at his own expense, thus making him the first real radio astronomer, and the
only radio astronomer at that time.
There must have been someone else as well (because There always is in science!), but the story is a good one.
((this sort of "great old scientific story" sometimes unravels; for instance, witness our remorseless pulling apart of "Hubble's discovery of the expansion the universe" elsewhere in this science forum ))
Best Regards, Robert Lang