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Educational Telescope
Background
In 1961, a 40-foot telescope was ordered from Antenna Systems,
Incorporated and delivered to our growing observatory in Green
Bank, West Virginia. This inexpensive aluminum telescope took
only two days to set up and began observations on December 14,
1961.
The 40-foot telescope can only move in one direction, up and
down. It relies on the Earth’s rotation to swing it underneath the
space objects it observes. With a control system designed and
built by NRAO staff, on February 1, 1962 the 40-foot became the
world’s first fully automated telescope.
The 40-foot provided us with an unmanned observing program
focused solely on radio sources whose brightness changes over
time. Its five-year mission observed eight radio sources every day:
3C 48, 3C 144 (Taurus A, aka Crab Nebula), 3C 218 (Hydra A), 3C
274 (Virgo A), 3C 295, 3C 358, 3C 405 (Cygnus A), and 3C 461
(Cas A). As far as we know, it was the first completely automated
telescope. After sitting idle for nearly 2 decades, the 40′ was
recommissioned in 1987 as an educational telescope.

Cool fact: We repurposed the Tatel Telescope’s 1960

feed, which was created by Frank Drake for Project Ozma
– the world’s first scientific search for extraterrestrial
intelligence – for use on the 40-Foot Telescope.
More than 1,500 students ranging from 5th graders to graduate
students use the telescope to investigate the radio universe every
year.

sidtcl is a program (.exe format) that you can run on your

computer to convert between local sidereal time ( also known as
the Right Ascension over the 40 foot) and Eastern time. The
program will convert time for the 40-Foot, GBT, and 20M
telescopes.
Right-click this link (http://www.gb.nrao.edu/epo/sidtcl.exe) to
download the program.
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Science in the Next Decade (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/science-2020-2030/)

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Observing with the GBT (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/gbt-observers/observing/)
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GBT Observer Training Workshops (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/gbt-
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140 Foot (43m) Telescope (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/telescopes/140-foot/)
20m (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/telescopes/20m/)
40 Foot Educational Telescope (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/telescopes/40-ft/)
45 ft (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/telescopes/45-ft/)
Other Historic Telescopes (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/telescopes/other/)
GBI (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/telescopes/gbi/)
Reber Telescope (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/telescopes/reber-telelescope/)
Tatel Telescope (https://greenbankobservatory.org/science/telescopes/85-1-howard-tatel/)