Radio-Radar Telescope Will Listen to Stars and Map Moon
September 1961 Popular Mechanics

September 1961 Popular Mechanics

[Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early mechanics and electronics. See articles from Popular Mechanics, published continuously since 1902. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

The 1,000-meter radiotelescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, the one used by Carl Sagan's team for broadcasting a "here we are" message toward the globular star cluster M13, in the constellation of Hercules, back in 1974, experienced a catastrophic mechanical failure in December of 2020. It saw "first light," a term used by astronomers for the first time a telescope is used for observation, in November 1963. This article on the proposed 1,000-meter Arecibo radiotelescope appeared in a 1961 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine. After many modifications over its lifetime, it operated over a 300 MHz to 10 GHz range, and although the dish is fixed in position, the moveable feedhorn facilitates a coverage of -1° to 39° relative to the zenith position. The transmitters were used for radar measurement of moons and planets. This document issues by the National Science Foundation in December 2010 announced the Arecibo Observatory retirement.

Radio-Radar Telescope Will Listen to Stars and Map Moon

This fall a team of space scientists will turn on a giant radio-radar telescope nestled in a mountain valley near Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to investigate, among other things, the properties of the ionosphere.

It also will bombard the moon with radar signals; the echoes will produce a topographical map.

The $6,000,000 'scope, a tool of the Defense Department, has a fixed reflector.

Posted December 20, 2023