Astronomy is all about increasing our understandings about our Universe through observing objects like stars, galaxies and other bodies which exist outside Earth’s atmosphere. Astronomers make observations of these celestial phenomena by collecting electromagnetic radiation. Optical telescopes e.g. the Hubble Space Telescope collect light whereas radio telescopes like the Parkes Observatory serve the purpose in gathering radio waves. Radio astronomers speciality study space by observing and studying radio waves in detail. Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation and ever since it has become possible in measuring regions in the electromagnetic spectrum (outside the optical range) there has been a significant improvement in the field of astronomy. This is due to more capabilities in making accurate observations. There has been a …show more content…
Following World War II Reber’s work has helped scientists in building a much bigger and improved antennas to study the universe. In today’s age we have ranged sizes of single dish radio telescopes , the largest being the Arecibo Radio telescope in Puerto Rico which has a 305m (1000 feet) diameter and is 167 feet deep. It occupies an area of about twenty acres (NAIC, 2004). Furthermore, home TV satellite dishes also operate using the same principle as the radio telescope, which was created by Reber.
Astronomers stimulated a new technique known as radio interferometry, which resulted from combining the signals of many small single dish radio telescope. This technique was first demonstrated by Professor Martin Ryle and Professor Christiansen and followed by a number of other