Radio Telescopes

Abstract

‘‘Radio Telescopes” starts with a brief historical introduction from Jansky’s1931 discovery of radio emission from the Milky Way through the development ofradio telescope dishes and arrays to aperture synthesis imaging. It includessufficient basics of electromagnetic radiation to provide some understanding of thedesign and operation of radio telescopes. The criteria such as frequencyrange, sensitivity, survey speed, angular resolution, and field of view thatdetermine the design of radio telescopes are introduced. Because it is soeasy to manipulate the electromagnetic waves at radio frequencies, radiotelescopes have evolved into many different forms, sometimes with “wire”structures tuned to specific wavelengths, which look very different from anykind of classical telescope. To assist astronomers more familiar with otherwavelength domains, the appendix A.1. includes a comparison of radioand optical terminology. Some of the different types of radio telescopesincluding the filled aperture dishes, electronically steered phased arrays, andaperture synthesis radio telescopes are discussed, and there is a sectioncomparing the differences between dishes and arrays. Some of the morerecent developments including hierarchical beam forming, phased arrayfeeds, mosaicing, rotation measure synthesis, digital receivers, and longbaseline interferometers are included. The problem of increasing radiofrequency interference is discussed, and some possible mitigation strategies areoutlined.

The open-sky policy adopted by most radio astronomy observatories makes itpossible to select the best radio telescope for an experiment, and some guidelinesare provided together with an appendix A.2. listing all of the world’s largecentimeter and meter radio wavelength telescopes. Finally, we include a shortdescription of some of the great radio telescopes which have had the mostscientific impact in the last decade and give some indications of futuredirections.