![]() ![]() ![]() Second upgrade: Begun in 1992 and completed in 1997, this upgrade replaced the line feeds with a Gregorian reflector system as the main method of focusing radio waves reflected from the 1,000-foot dish.This upgrade was financed by the NSF and NASA. ![]() At the same time, a high-powered transmitter (420 kilowatts) was installed for planetary radar studies. Shortly after the observatory was made one of the NSF's National Astronomy and Ionosphere Centers in the early 1970s, this surface was replaced by 38,788 very accurately shaped aluminum panels, which allowed the telescope to operate at much higher frequencies, with the highest about 3 GHz (10 cm wavelength). First upgrade: The original 1,000-foot-diameter fixed spherical reflector had a wire mesh surface that limited its operation to radio frequencies below 600 MHz (50 cm wavelength).It has been managed by Cornell since its construction, first for the Air Force and, after 1970, for the National Science Foundation. In addition to its astronomical observations, it is still used for atmospheric and ionospheric studies. It was primarily intended for radar studies of the Earth's ionosphere, but it was realized that the telescope would be a very significant new instrument for the then relatively new fields of radio and radar astronomy. Air Force under the initiative of Professor William Gordon in the Department of Electrical Engineering and his colleagues at Cornell. Beginnings: Arecibo Observatory was built in 1963 by the U.S. ![]()
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