The History of Radio Astronomy and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory

  • Benjamin K. Malphrus
Krieger: 1996. Pp.210. $49.50, £44.50
Sky eye: raising the superstructure of the 140-ft telescope at Green Bank in the 1960s.

As a long-time user of telescopes at the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), I was eager to read this book to learn more about my ‘scientific origins’. I was very disappointed by it; the discussion seems shallow as both science and history.

The emphasis is on the development of the NRAO site at Green Bank, West Virginia, along with some historical background. Most of the text is about the (now collapsed) 300-ft telescope and the recently closed 140-ft telescope, but there is a very brief chapter containing sections about the 36-ft telescope at Kitt Peak in Arizona, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, and the new Green Bank Telescope, which is the replacement for the 300-ft antenna. The Millimetre-Wave Array is not mentioned at all.

Although the author discusses extensively the scientific results obtained from the older telescopes, he does so in a way so laden with jargon that only an astronomer could understand them. Moreover, he does not explain why the results are (or at least were) interesting in terms of advancing our physical understanding of the Universe. Rather, the discussion is about phenomenology, so that even optical astronomers may sometimes be left in the dark about why the observations were made.

I was struck by the lack of historical analysis. There are parallels between the building of the 140-ft telescope and the new Green Bank Telescope, which has run into similar delays in construction. I feel that the author is doing a disservice to the astronomical community by not exploring the underlying issues, although I imagine that there are some who would prefer not to have such problems aired in public. As George Santayana said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The story of NRAO, and its companion organization at optical wavelengths (the National Optical Astronomy Observatories), is one that deserves to be told to a wide audience, as the two have revolutionized how astronomy is done, not just in the United States, but throughout the world. By giving telescope time based on the scientific merit of the ideas, rather than the institutional affiliation of the observer, they have led to the field exploding over the past 40 years, and to a revolution in our knowledge of the Universe. I wish this book had done a better job of telling that story.