Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope

The Effelsberg radio telescope is a radio telescope in Ahrgebirge ( part of the Eifel ) in Bad Münster Eifel in the district of Euskirchen in North Rhine -Westphalia ( Germany ).

Geographical location

The Effelsberg radio telescope located approximately 1.3 km north-east of the village in Ahrgebirge Effelsberg, a ostsüdöstlichen district of Bad Münster Eifel ( Euskirchen ). It is to the west of about 398 m high mountain chickens, whose hilltop in the east adjacent Rhineland -Palatinate in the municipality of Kirchsahr ( Landkreis Ahrweiler ) is only 275 m northeast of the telescope. The telescope itself is located at 319 m above sea level. NN.

The border is formed in the region of the telescope from a portion of a few meters east of the Radio Telescope Effelsberg over flowing stream, a 6.5 km long, coming from the Effelsberg forest, western tributary of the 15.3 km long Sahrbachs in the catchment area of the River Ahr. About 90 meters to the southeast of the telescope ends in these coming from the direction of West southwest Lethert, 1,9 km long Rötzelbach.

Telescope

Description

The Effelsberg radio telescope is part of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn. It was built in 1968-1971 and put into operation on 1 August 1972. The technical difficulties to produce a radio telescope 100 m in diameter, are due to the deformation of the mirror forth in moving and tilting, which interferes with the parabolic shape of the mirror. In radio astronomy, but the geometrical characteristics of parabolic mirrors are particularly interesting because the axis parallel captured waves are reflected in the same phase relationship to the focal point, thereby enabling all the maximum gain. It has therefore been calculated using the finite element method, the construction that the entering into any position mirror and at each follow-up movement deformations of the mirror again arise Paraboleigenschaften, so that only the receiver can be traced in the new focal point. After completion of the radio telescope measurements could be demonstrated that the originally desired tolerance of the mirror could be well below 1 mm. At present ( 2012), the average deviation from the ideal paraboloid less than 0.6 mm.

About 45 % of the observing time will be provided foreign astronomers available.

The Effelsberg radio telescope was for 29 years the largest steerable radio telescope in the world until in 2000, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia ( USA) was put into operation (diameter: 100 to 110 m).

The Effelsberg radio telescope was used as a template for the 500 - Pf stamp of the definitive stamp series Industry and Technology of the German Federal Post Office.

Specifications

Planetenwanderweg

Along the trail that leads to the radio telescope, since the autumn of 2004, a 766 m long planet trail runs with information panels about the solar system with its planets and the sun itself, the path ends at a model of the sun of 39 cm diameter at the Information booth of the radio telescope.

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