Sky & Telescope - June 2021 - 40

BOOK REVIEW by Gerrit Verschuur

Radio Astronomy Grows Up
OPEN SKIES: The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Its Impact on U.S. Radio Astronomy
Kenneth I. Kellermann, Ellen N. Bouton,
and Sierra S. Brandt
Springer, 2020
652 pages
ISBN 978-3-030-32344-8 (print book)
ISBN 978-3-030-32345 (eBook)
$59.99, hardcover or softcover
Note: This is an open access book, with
free download available at: https://doi.
org/10.1007/978-3-030-32345-5

FROM THE BIRTH of radio astronomy
in the early 1930s until today, the sensitivity of radio telescopes has increased
by a factor of about 100 million. This
is just one of many fascinating facts
revealed in Open Skies: The National
Radio Astronomy Observatory and Its
Impact on U.S. Radio Astronomy.
This meticulously researched and
smoothly written history focuses on the
construction and operation of increasingly larger and more expensive radio
telescopes under the umbrella of the
NRAO, whose creation revolutionized
all of astronomy. For the ﬁrst time, the
government, rather than private donors,
funded a major observatory. NRAO also
pioneered the Open Skies policy, which
allows anyone in the world who submits
a successful observing proposal to use
its telescopes.
Open Skies offers something for
everyone as it chronicles the blossoming ﬁeld's hurdles, successes, and
failures. Those interested in history will
delight in early chapters describing how
large radio telescopes came into being
(although the list of the myriad characters involved may become overwhelming
to some readers). Political junkies will
revel in going behind the scenes to witness in graphic detail how individuals
battled to have their voices heard during

JUNE 2 021 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

countless committee
and planning meetings,
and how the interests of
small radio observatories
vied with the might of
the ever-growing NRAO.
Others can enjoy
eavesdropping on the
battles between project
managers and contractors as they argued about
meeting stringent design
speciﬁcations, which,
in some cases, led to
lawsuits. On the road to
a new project's completion, disastrous
setbacks were known to occur, as with
the 140 Foot Radio Telescope in Green
Bank, West Virginia. But other initiatives met with brilliant success, such as
the Very Large Array in New Mexico,
which, by contrast, was built on schedule and within budget.
The book has rich fodder, too, for
techno-geeks with an interest in hardware and software. They can follow
along as very creative people solved
difﬁcult and constantly evolving engineering and computational problems
en route to realizing their combined
visions. For true aﬁcionados, the book
includes extensive notes, references,
further reading suggestions, and a
lengthy index.
The underlying moral of the story
is that large radio telescope projects
usually cost a lot more - in time,
effort, aggravation, and money - than
originally anticipated. Beyond the U.S.
experience, readers can also learn much
about radio astronomy's development
in more traditional settings in England,
The Netherlands, Australia, Japan, and
now in South Africa, the site for the
high-frequency segment of the enormous Square Kilometer Array.

One aspect of the
growing ﬁeld that stands
out starkly in Open Skies
is how overwhelmingly
male-oriented radio
astronomy (and all
astronomy) once was.
In the book's numerous
historical photographs,
about 260 men appear to
just eight women, at least
four of whom were wives
or administrative personnel. In the early 1960s,
we could count the
number of female radio astronomers
on one hand. It's greatly to be hoped
that future histories of astronomy
will reﬂect broader diversity across the
spectrum, not only in gender but in race
and other underrepresented spheres.
While the nitty-gritty behind the
advent of the large NRAO ventures
makes for compelling reading, the
authors didn't give the NRAO 140 Foot
its due. They imply that it was a very
expensive failure. It was expensive but
not a failure. After all, in 1968 it saw
the ﬁrst measurement of the interstellar
magnetic ﬁeld strength and discovered
the ﬁrst organic interstellar molecule,
formaldehyde, plus several more within
a few years.
All in all, however, Open Skies is
worth soaking in in its entirety. Interested readers will emerge at the end
feeling that they just went on a remarkable adventure.

GERRIT VERSCHUUR, best known for
his work in radio astronomy, pioneered
the measurement of the interstellar
magnetic field using the 21-cm Zeeman
effect technique. He has published 13
books and dozens of popular astronomy
articles.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32345-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32345-5

Sky & Telescope - June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - June 2021