CfA 1.2 m Millimeter-Wave Telescope
The 1.2 meter Millimeter-Wave Telescope at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and its twin instrument at CTIO in Chile have been studying the distribution and properties of molecular clouds in our galaxy and its nearest neighbours since the 1970s. The telescope is nicknamed "The Mini" because of its unusually small size. At the time it was built, it was the smallest radio telescope in the world. Together, "The Mini" and its twin in Chile have obtained what is by far the most extensive, uniform, and widely used galactic survey of interstellar carbon monoxide. "The Mini" is currently in operation from October to May each year.In the early 1970s, an astronomer at the Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York named Patrick Thaddeus shattered centuries of precedent in the field of astronomy and bucked a trend dating all the way back to Galileo when he decided that, in order to proceed on a modest project to map the entire Milky Way, he simply did not need and in fact refused to use a larger telescope made available for his research. He wanted a small one. In an era made conspicuous by bigger, more sophisticated, and more expensive telescopes, Thaddeus insisted on a small and relatively inexpensive instrument, which he and his colleagues proceeded to build from scratch.
Excerpt from the Wikipedia article CfA 1.2 m Millimeter-Wave Telescope (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).CfA 1.2 m Millimeter-Wave Telescope
Martin Street, Cambridge
Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places Show on map
Continue reading on Wikipedia
Geographical coordinates (GPS)
Latitude | Longitude |
---|---|
N 42.38167 ° | E -71.12853 ° |
Address
Harvard University
Martin Street
02138 Cambridge
Massachusetts, United States
Open on Google Maps