Charlottesville, Virginia The NRAO headquarters is located on the campus of the
University of Virginia in
Charlottesville, Virginia. The North American
ALMA Science Center and the NRAO Technology Center and Central Development Laboratory are also in Charlottesville.
Green Bank, West Virginia NRAO was, until October 2016, the operator of the world's largest fully steerable
radio telescope, the
Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, which stands near
Green Bank, West Virginia. The observatory contains several other telescopes, among them the telescope that utilizes an
equatorial mount uncommon for radio telescopes, three telescopes forming the
Green Bank Interferometer, a telescope used by school groups and organizations for small scale research, a fixed radio "
horn" built to observe the radio source Cassiopeia A, as well as a reproduction of the original antenna built by
Karl Jansky while he worked for Bell Labs to detect the
interference that was discovered to be previously unknown natural
radio waves emitted by the universe. Green Bank is in the
National Radio Quiet Zone, which is coordinated by NRAO for protection of the Green Bank site as well as the
Sugar Grove Station monitoring site operated by the
NSA. The zone consists of a piece of land where fixed transmitters must coordinate their emissions before a license is granted. The land was set aside by the
Federal Communications Commission in 1958. No fixed radio transmitters are allowed within the area closest to the telescope. All other fixed radio transmitters including TV and radio towers inside the zone are required to transmit such that interference at the antennas is minimized by methods including limited power and using highly directional antennas. With the advent of
wireless technology and microprocessors in everything from cameras to cars, it is difficult to keep the sites free of radio interference. To aid in limiting outside interference, the area surrounding the
Green Bank Observatory was at one time planted with pines characterized by needles of a certain length to block electromagnetic interference at the wavelengths used by the observatory. At one point, the observatory faced the problem of
North American flying squirrels tagged with
United States Fish and Wildlife Service telemetry transmitters. Electric fences, electric blankets, faulty automobile electronics, and other radio wave emitters have caused great trouble for the astronomers in Green Bank. All vehicles on the premises are powered by diesel motors to minimize interference by ignition systems. Until its collapse on November 15, 1988, a 300 ft radio telescope stood at the Green Bank Observatory's unique site. It was the largest radio telescope on Earth when it was brought online for its first observation at 12:42 am on September 21, 1962. The telescope's first observation was of the remnants of Tycho's supernova that had exploded 11 November 1572. Two major overhauls installed a new surface in 1970 to correct for maintenance, snow damage, and warping from its sheer size; then a new, bigger project building was constructed in 1972 that incorporated a Faraday cage around the control room itself. The telescope stood at 240 ft in height, weighed 600 tons, had a 2-minute arc accuracy, and had a surface accuracy of ~1 inch. The collapse in 1988 was found to be due to unanticipated stresses which cracked a hidden, yet weight- and stress-supporting steel connector plate, in the support structure of the massive telescope. A cascade failure of the structure occurred at 9:43 pm, causing the entire telescope to implode. The debris from the collapse was cleared by June 1989, and West Virginia
Senator Robert C. Byrd led a campaign in Congress to replace it with the
Green Bank Telescope, construction for which began in 1990.
Socorro, New Mexico (VLA), an array of 27 dish antennas The NRAO's facility in
Socorro is the
Pete Domenici Array Operations Center (AOC). Located on the
New Mexico Tech university campus, the AOC serves as the headquarters for the
Very Large Array (VLA), which was the setting for the
1997 movie Contact, and is also the control center for the
Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The ten VLBA telescopes are in
Hawaii, the
U.S. Virgin Islands, and eight other sites across the continental United States.
Tucson, Arizona Offices were located on the
University of Arizona campus. NRAO formerly operated the
12-Meter Telescope on
Kitt Peak. NRAO suspended operations at this telescope and funding was rerouted to the
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) instead. The
Arizona Radio Observatory now operates the 12-Meter Telescope.
San Pedro de Atacama, Chile The
Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) site in Chile is at ~ altitude near
Cerro Chajnantor in northern Chile. This is about east of the historic village of
San Pedro de Atacama, southeast of the mining town of Calama, and about east-northeast of the coastal port of
Antofagasta. == Directors ==