Talk:Radio telescope

Sample images
In addition to the images of the telescopes themselves, I'd like to see some examples of the output of radio telescopes. For example, a few of the more significant very early images, and some spectacular ones from today. Cheers - Gobeirne (talk)
 * Oh, I see what I'm after is at radio astronomy. Cheers - Gobeirne (talk) 02:52, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

'''Why are Radio Telescopes important? Is it that they are able to talk to the space craft due to the waves it gives out?' —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.254.139.236 (talk) 02:31, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

Invention
There seems to be some confusion as to who "invented" the radio telescope - Karl Guthe Jansky or Grote Reber. I assume it arises from the fact that radio astronomy itself was never invented, it was discovered (serendipitously). Karl Jansky's antenna was directional and he used it to map the location of the strongest radio source (the center of the milky way). When he did that he was using it as a radio telescope. Unusual Telescopes by Peter L. Manly, page 76 has a good description of Jansky's first antenna and its usage as a telescope. Grote Reber would not be the "inventor" of the "dish" radio telescope either since the parabolic reflector antennas had been around since 1888 and Jansky proposed one for radio astronomy in 1935. Reber was the first to build an antenna and receiver for the purpose of astronomy and the first to use a parabolic reflecting antenna for astronomy.. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 23:34, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Seeming contradiction about the largest radio telescope in Europe
The article states that the largest single radio telescope in the world is near Nizhnij Arkhyz in Russia, while the largest single radio telescope in Europe is another telescope near Effelsberg Germany. I don't have detailed maps of the mountains, but it looks like Nizhnij Arkhyz is on the north side of the Caucasus mountains, and therefore in Europe. 72.66.63.111 (talk) 21:54, 14 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Cool, can you add the reference and information to the page?AcuteAccusation (talk) 21:56, 14 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, I just looked at a map. I don't want to get into OR. 72.66.63.111 (talk) 23:25, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Definition in lead sentence
The lead sentence says:
 * A radio telescope is a form of directional radio antenna used in radio astronomy

I understand how difficult it is to decide on a lead sentence for a scientific article like this. However I think this is slightly inaccurate. Most astronomical literature defines the radio telescope to include the radio receiver; for example: ''A radio telescope is a radio receiver that receives radio waves from astronomical sources in the sky. '' The antenna is usually the most visible and important part and should be included in the definition, but the receiver is an equally essential part of the instrument. Chetvorno TALK 10:06, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 one external links on Radio telescope. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20080824003225/http://www.csiro.au/files/files/pbhq.rtf to http://www.csiro.au/files/files/pbhq.rtf
 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20070831223606/http://www.gps.caltech.edu:80/faculty/muhleman/muhleman.html to http://www.gps.caltech.edu/faculty/muhleman/muhleman.html

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 17:02, 27 February 2016 (UTC)

Big dishes
User:Margin1522, the fixed width doesn't work however we slice it, so I've dropped it to a normal gallery, which flows. Widefox ; talk 14:43, 23 January 2017 (UTC)

Should NASA Deep Space Network dishes be in the Gallery?
I noticed that 3 of the antennas in the "big dish" gallery are spacecraft communication antennas at sites of NASA Deep Space Network (the DSS-14 at Goldstone, DSS-43 at Canberra, DSS-63 at Madrid). I know that these antennas are used for radio astronomy during spare time when they are not needed for spacecraft communication. However these are not primarily "radio telescopes"; they were built for spacecraft communication, and are funded by the NASA budget, not the NRAO. Their presence in this gallery may confuse general readers that communicating with spacecraft is "radio astronomy". There are plenty of other big dishes that are full-time radio telescopes. I suggest we remove these examples and reserve the gallery for actual radio telescopes. --ChetvornoTALK 04:29, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

Anyone know anything about radio telescope receivers?
The article could use a section on radio telescope receivers, particularly the techniques used to achieve ultra low noise in the receiver's front end. I know they used to use ruby masers cooled with liquid nitrogen. Are these still used? --ChetvornoTALK 04:13, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Filled aperture
The term "Filled aperture" which appears three times on the page needs to be explained Peter Ells (talk) 20:32, 14 February 2020 (UTC)