Your guide to the National Radio Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.
The Observatory lies at the heart of the United States National Radio Quiet Zone.
The National Radio Quiet Zone is a 13,000 sq. miles area established in 1956 by the FCC where all radio transmissions are either limited or banned outright, to help the telescope function properly.The observatory borders the National Forest and is shielded from radio interference by the Allegheny mountains.
This area was chosen because it has a hilly topography that screens out most incoming radio signals, allowing the Green Bank telescopes to receive signals that are otherwise too low in power to be heard over the normal radio background in North America.
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 as to 'block' electromagnetic interference at the wavelengths used by the observatory.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
No electronics whatsoever are allowed inside the gates of the observatory. You can only use disposable cameras. No digital.
These first few pictures were taken with a digital SLR camera a couple miles away from the observatory.
The Observatory is home to the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. It is also the world's largest land-based movable structure.
The current telescope was built following the collapse of the previous Green Bank telescope. The old telescope collapsed in 1988 due to the sudden loss of a gusset plate.
