Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory (MRAO) is home to a number of large aperture synthesis radio telescopes, including the One-Mile Telescope, 5-km Ryle Telescope, and the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager. Radio interferometry started in the mid-1940s on the outskirts of Cambridge, but with funding from the Science Research Council and a donation of £100,000 from Mullard Limited, construction of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory commenced at Lord’s Bridge, a few kilometres to the west of Cambridge. The observatory was founded under Martin Ryle of the Radio-Astronomy Group of the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge and was opened by Sir Edward Victor Appleton on 25 July 1957. This group is now known as the Cavendish Astrophysics Group.

The site is located at Lord’s Bridge, Cambridgeshire on a former ordnance storage facility, next to the now-abandoned Cambridge-Bedford railway line. A portion of the track bed of the old line, running nearly East-West for several miles, was used to form the main part of the “5km” radio-telescope and the Cambridge Low Frequency Synthesis Telescope.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The observatory was originally named ”Deep Space Station 51” and was built in 1961 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In this role the station assisted in tracking many unmanned United States space missions, including the Ranger, Surveyor and Lunar Orbiter spacecraft (which landed on the Moon or mapped it from orbit), the Mariner missions (which explored the planets Venus and Mars) and the Pioneer missions (which measured the Sun’s winds).

NASA withdrew from the station in 1975, handing it over to South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), who converted to a radio astronomy observatory. In 1988 the observatory became a National Facility operated by the Foundation for Research Development (FRD); in 1999 the FRD was restructured as the National Research Foundation (NRF).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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*radio astronomy for Astrophysics

*molecular clouds physics

*space masers

*giant atoms in Space

*star formation processes (research and investigation)

*physical conditions in the diffuse interstellar medium

*supernova remnants and the interstellar medium

*radio emission of radio galaxies and quasars

*interplanetary plasma and solar wind investigations

*how perturbations propagate in the interplanetary plasma is studied

*Northern Hemispheric isotope construction

*catalogue of radio sources

*active galactic nuclei are studied

*VLBI (Very Large Baseline Interferometry)

*pulsars physics which are neutron stars

*pulsar radio emission is studied in the context of microstructure of pulse and the mechanism involved.

*establish pulsar time scale by timing of pulsars.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Five College Radio Astronomical Observatory (FCRAO) was founded in 1969 by the Five College Astronomy Department (University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College). From its inception, the observatory has emphasized research, the development of technology and the training of students—both graduate and undergraduate. The observatory is located on a peninsula in the Quabbin Reservoir.

The initial FCRAO telescope was a customized low-frequency antenna to search for pulsars in the galaxy. The development of instrumentation within the FCRAO labs contributed to the discovery of the binary pulsar system PSR B1913+16 by Joseph Taylor and Russell Hulse, for which they received the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The Observatory employs 45 researchers along with 60 engineers and technicians to accomplish staff the several major departments and several labs of the observatory. These are combined with 80 other people who perform administrative duties, work shops, garage, and a staff of guards.

The departments and labs are designed to focus on scientific and technical aspects of observatory sciences.

The departments are as follows: Plasma astrophysics, Extragalactic radio astronomy, Pulsar physics, Space radio spectroscopy, and Pulsar astrometry. The laboratories are as follows: Radio astronomy equipment, Automation radio astronomy research, Computer engineering and information technology, and Radio telescopes of the meter wave-length range.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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:Alfven waves energy flow at 10 solar radii,

:establish the existence of a planet near pulsar PSR BO329+54,

:calalogue the spectra of 336 pulsars, discovery of a radio pulsar 102 MHz while observing X-ray radio source Geminga,

:another radio pulsar discovered as the source of SGR 1900+14

:an interplanetary scintillating method accomplishes a successful survey of compact radio sources.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory is a notable Russian (former Soviet) radio astronomy observatory. It was developed by Lebedev Physical Institute (LPI), Russian Academy of Sciences within a span of twenty years. It was founded on April 11, 1956, and currently occupies 70 000 square meters.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The observatory is equipped with a single 260 ton radio telescope with a main reflecting surface diameter of 26 metres. The telescope is equipped with radio receivers operating in the microwave band at wavelengths of 18cm, 13cm, 6cm, 4.5cm, 3.5cm, 2.5cm and 1.3cm.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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HartRAO is mainly used for continuum radiometry, spectroscopy, pulsar timing and interferometry but also works together with radio telescopes on other continents as well as the orbiting radio telescope HALCA in order to perform Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).

HartRAO is an associate member of the European VLBI Network, but also operates with the Australia Telescope Long Baseline Array, the Asia-Pacific Telescope, the United States Very Long Baseline Array and the Global Array.

HartRAO also runs a Space Geodesy programme using VLBI, Satellite laser ranging and the Global Positioning System.

The observatory also provides students and lecturers from South African universities the facilities and opportunities to perform research.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Charlottesville, Virginia

NRAO headquarters is located on the University of Virginia grounds. The North American ALMA Science Center and the NRAO Technology Center are also located in Charlottesville.

Green Bank, West Virginia

NRAO is the operator of the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope, the Green Bank Telescope, which stands near Green Bank, West Virginia. The observatory contains many other notable telescopes, among them the telescope that utilizes an equatorial mount uncommon for radio telescopes, three telescopes forming the Green Bank Interferometer, a telescope used by school groups and organizations for small scale research, a fixed radio ‘horn’ built to observe Cygnus X-1, a bunk house to facilitate these guests, as well as a reproduction of the original antenna built by Karl Jansky while he worked for Bell Labs to detect the interference that was discovered to be previously unknown natural radio waves emitted by the universe.

Green Bank is in the United States National Radio Quiet Zone, which is coordinated by NRAO for protection of the Green Bank site as well as the Sugar Grove, West Virginia monitoring site operated by the National Security Agency. The zone consists of a piece of land where fixed transmitters must coordinate their emissions before a license is granted. The land was set aside by the Federal Communications Commission in 1958, as a radio quiet zone; the area closest to the telescope is free of fixed radio transmitters, and all other fixed radio transmitters including TV and radio towers inside the zone are required to transmit such that interference at the antennas is minimized by methods including limited power and using highly directional antennas. With the advent of wireless technology and microprocessors in everything from cameras to cars it is difficult to keep the sites free of radio interference. To aid in limiting outside interference, the area surrounding the Green Bank observatory was at one time planted with pines characterized by needles of a certain length as to ‘block’ electromagnetic interference at the wavelengths used by the observatory. At one point, the observatory faced the problem of North American flying squirrels tagged with US Fish & Wildlife Service telemetry transmitters. Electric fences and other radio wave emitters have caused great trouble for the astronomers in Green Bank.

Socorro, New Mexico

The NRAO’s facility in Socorro is the Array Operations Center (AOC). Located on the New Mexico Tech campus, the AOC serves as the headquarters for the Very Large Array (VLA), which was the setting for the movie ”Contact”, and the control center for the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). VLBA telescopes are located in Hawaii, the United States Virgin Islands, and several sites in the continental United States.

Tucson, Arizona

Offices are located on the University of Arizona campus. Formerly operated the 12 Meter Telescope on Kitt Peak. NRAO suspended operations at this telescope and funding was rerouted to the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) instead. The Arizona Radio Observatory now operates the 12 Meter Telescope.

Santiago, Chile

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) site in Chile is at 5000 m altitude near Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile. This is about 40& km east of the historic village of San Pedro de Atacama, 130& km southeast of the mining town of Calama, and about 275& km ENE of the coastal port of Antofagasta.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article National Radio Astronomy Observatory, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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