Oak Ridge Observatory
Coordinates: 42 ° 30 ′ 18 ″ N , 71 ° 33 ′ 30 ″ W.
The Oak Ridge Observatory is an astronomical observatory operated by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics , part of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). It is home to the largest reflector telescopes east of Texas in the USA, a 72-inch and a 61-inch reflector (1.8 and 1.5 m), as well as an 84-foot (25.6 m) radio telescope . It's in Harvard , Massachusetts .
The 72-inch telescope called "OSETI" went into operation in 2006. It cost $ 400,000, but because of the long radio waves, it only has an angular resolution of 2 arc minutes. The 61-inch instrument, nicknamed "Wyeth", dates from the 1930s and was decommissioned in 2005. Several asteroids were discovered at the observatory . It received the observatory code 801 from the Minor Planet Center .
Web links
- Oak Ridge Observatory
- Optical SETI at Harvard
- Alan M. MacRobert: A Big New Step in the Search for ET , Sky and Telescope, 2006