Designer of famous Arecibo telescope dies at 92

[Kadie]

Designer of famous Arecibo telescope dies at 92
By MARY ESCH, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, February 18, 2010


(02-18) 14:53 PST Albany, N.Y. (AP) --

Astronomer and engineer Bill Gordon, who designed the photogenic radio telescope in Puerto Rico that spotted the first planets beyond our solar system and lakes on one of Saturn's moons, has died in New York state. He was 92.

Gordon died Tuesday of natural causes, according to officials at Cornell University in Ithaca, the Ivy League college where he served on the engineering faculty from 1953-66.

He designed the Arecibo Observatory's radio telescope in the 1950s; it's a 1,000-foot-wide dish set in a sinkhole surrounded by forested hills.

Within a year of opening, it was used to determine the planet Mercury's period of rotation. After radio pulsars — rotating neutron stars — were discovered in 1967, the observatory played a prominent role in studying their properties.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/02/18/national/a125205S26.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0fw4Ob6vz


FILE - This May 31, 2007 file photo shows the world's largest radio telescope -- the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Engineer and astronomer Bill Gordon, who designed the observatory in the 1950s while serving on the engineering faculty of Cornell University, has died of natural causes at his home in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 92.

Photo: Brennan Linsley / AP

[Submariner]

1. I have visited the telescope

about a half dozen times when I have got a break from work. Impressive structure and mission. The inside exhibits have a lot of wear and tear and needs an infusion of dollars to get it up to spec again. This would probably be a good stimulus job expenditure to fix it up.

Bush tried to kill all funding and close Arecibo, but it hangs in there.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. RIP to a great engineer. nt

[Wilms]

3. Thanks for posting this. K&R n/t