The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope

Elbers, Astrid

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-49079-3_5

Astrid Elbers³

Part of the book series: Historical & Cultural Astronomy ((HCA))

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Abstract

The reason why the Dutch started thinking about building another radio telescope in the late 1950s was that they needed higher resolving power. The first design for this new telescope dated from 1961 and was a large cross antenna. Thereafter, it was changed three times. The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope that was inaugurated in 1970 looked very different: it was a linear array. The reasons to change the design were sometimes scientific, but often, they were also practical, political and/or economic. As a location for the telescope, the forestry of Hooghalen (Drenthe) was chosen. Before the construction could begin, several obstacles needed to be overcome: a road had to be closed, a farm and a military shooting range had to be removed, and several Ambonese families had to be moved. The ease with which Oort got all this done testifies to his prestige as well as to the prestige radio astronomy had gained by the mid-1960s. The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope was one of the most expensive Dutch scientific projects. At the same time, the Dutch government budgets had been tightening since the mid-1960s. As a result, grant applications became more and more strict. Oort , who had been used to getting what he wanted, had great difficulty adapting to this. Finally, the observational programme of the telescope was—although very diverse—very different from what was originally envisaged.

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Notes

1.
Coutrez, R., BCAP: interim report and cost estimate, June 1961, SA, NWO.
2.
Oort to Swings, 10 September 1958, SA, NWO.
3.
Personal communication of Leiden astronomer Frank Israel to author, 3 June 2014.
4.
‘Het plan is om op deze golflengte in Dwingeloo vooreerst de zon te gaan meten, en in’t bijzonder de “erupties” die de zon telkens vertoont in’t gebied der radiogolven. (…) Dit werk zal met een der 7½-m spiegels gedaan zorden. Met dezelfde ontvanger zal zowel in de 7½-m als ook in de 25-m spiegel de straling van de Melkweg bij 75 cm golglengte gemeten worden en tevens de straling die uit het heelal buiten het Melkwegstelsel komt’. Oort, J.H., Iets over de onderzoekingen die in Dwingeloo in het eeerste jaar gedaan zullen worden, OA, 256.
5.
Minutes of the executive committee meeting of SRZM of 21 October 1958, SA.
6.
Christiansen, W.N. and Högbom, J.A., Benelux Cross Antenna Project. BCAP Technical Report No. 3. ‘A design for the Benelux Cross Antenna’, 1961, SA, NWO.
7.
Ernst Raimond himself belonged to the first generation of radio astronomers in the Netherlands. After he had obtained his PhD in Leiden in 1964, he spent two years at Caltech and then joined SRZM. He directed the online control system of the WSRT and participated in the programming. He became the first director of the WSRT in 1970, see: Noordam, J. Biographical Memoir—Ernst Raimond, 2011, at: http://rahist.nrao.edu/raimond_bio-memoir.shtml (Accessed on 29 August 2012).
8.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 29 November 1960, SA.
9.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 21 February 1961, SA.
10.
Dwars, Heederik and Verwey, ‘Interim Report—May 1961. Preliminary design of steel frames and foundations for a very large Cross Aerial’ SA, NWO.
11.
‘Preliminary budget’ [1961], SA, NWO.
12.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP, 27 June 1961, SA.
13.
‘Benelux Cross Antenna Project. Interim Report and Cost Estimate’ [1961], SA, NWO.
14.
Coutrez and Oort to the Minister of Education, Arts, and Sciences, 4 July 1961; Coutrez and Oort to the Minister of Education, 4 July 1961, SA, NWO.
15.
‘Benelux Cross Antenna Project. Interim Report and Cost Estimate’ [1961], p. 3, SA, NWO.
16.
‘dat reeds op de begroting van 1962 gelden voor de bouw uitgetrokken worden, daar anders de meeste der thans op volle gang zijnde werkzaamheden stilgelegd zouden moeten worden’. Coutrez and Oort to the Minister of Education, Arts, and Sciences, 4 July 1961, SA, NWO.
17.
Minutes of the Council meeting of ZWO of 22 December 1961, SA, NWO.
18.
Blaauw to the director of ZWO, 5 September 1961, SA, NWO.
19.
Annual report ZWO 1960, pp. 18, 19.
20.
Annual reports ZWO 1961 and 1962.
21.
Minutes of the board meeting of ZWO of 16 December 1961, SA, NWO.
22.
An ionospheric sounder is a device that measures time delay and strength of the echo at various frequencies in the high-frequency region by using basic radar techniques (Saverino et al. 2013, 100).
23.
A parametric amplifier is a high-frequency, low-noise amplifier.
24.
Pawsey to Oort, 14 September 1959, SA, NWO.
25.
Oort to Pawsey, 30 December 1959, SA, NWO.
26.
Pawsey to Oort, 21 January 1960, SA, NWO.
27.
Oort to Pawsey, 3 February 1960, SA, NWO.
28.
Pawsey to Oort, 24 March 1960, SA, NWO.
29.
Bowen to Oort, 6 January 1960, OA, 176.
30.
Oort to Christiansen, 20 April 1960, OA, 176.
31.
Unlike Robinson, Christiansen was paid by the Dutch.
32.
Christiansen to Oort, 19 May 1960, OA, 176.
33.
Oort to Christiansen, 15 August 1960, OA, 176.
34.
Rapport intérimaire dur le projet Benelux pour l’antenne en croix—Benelux cross antenna project (BCAP), 22 February 1961, SA, NWO.
35.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 19 March 1962, SA.
36.
Oort to Pawsey, 26 October 1959, OA, 112e.
37.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 11 December 1961, SA.
38.
In radio astronomy, this is the interval over which data are averaged to reduce background noise and increase the signal-to-noise ratio.
39.
Telescope time is the time the user spends on the telescope.
40.
Minutes of the meeting of the Council of the BCAP of 11 December 1961, SA.
41.
Remember that something quite similar happened to Christiansen, who was appointed to the Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Sydney, just before he went to Leiden.
42.
Erickson, W.C. and Högbom, J.A., BCAP-Memo 20 A, 13 September 1962: A design for a 1420 Mc/s Benelux Cross Antenna, SA, NWO.
43.
Erickson, W.C. and Högbom, J.A., BCAP-Memo 20 A, 13 September 1962: A design for a 1420 Mc/Sec Benelux Cross Antenna, pp. 2–3, SA, NWO.
44.
The resolving power of a telescope is inversely proportional to the wavelengths of radiation it receives.
45.
Erickson, W.C., BCAP-memo 19, Site requirements for the Benelux Cross Antenna Project, 10 August 1962, SA, NWO.
46.
Oort to the Members of the BCAP Council, 15 October 1962, SA, NWO.
47.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 21 January 1963, SA.
48.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 27 February 1963, SA.
49.
Vos to Bannier, 7 December 1962, SA, NWO.
50.
Aantekening ZWO, Kruisantenne-project, August 1963, SA, NWO.
51.
Minutes of the Meeting of the BCAP Project of 27 February 1963, SA.
52.
Oort, J.H., ‘Proposal for constructing the Benelux radio telescope as a synthesis instrument’, 25 March 1964, SA, NWO.
53.
Muller, C.A., ‘Memorandum over de ontwikkeling van het radiosterrenkundig onderzoek in Nederland’, 8 July 1963, SA, NWO.
54.
‘Door RYLE te Cambridge was inmiddels een nieuwe mogelijkheid aangegeven voor het bereiken van een groot scheidend vermogen met een eenvoudiger opstelling van een aantal antennes in één rij, dus een één-dimensionaal systeem, waarbij echter de noodzakelijke tweeden (sic) dimensie werd verkregen door draaiing van het systeem ten opzichte van de sterrenhemel met behulp van de draaiing van de aarde (…)’. Muller, C.A., ‘Memorandum over de ontwikkeling van het radiosterrenkundig onderzoek in Nederland’, 8 July 1963, SA, NWO.
55.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 17 October 1963, SA.
56.
‘Dit (…) wordt de aardrotatie-synthese genoemd, uitgevonden door de Britse radioastronoom Martin Ryle (…)’.
57.
‘(…) bij een synthese telescoop zoals we nu in Westerbork hebben moet je over de tijd integreren. Je kunt niet onmiddellijk een beeld krijgen, maar je moet twaalf uur lang waarnemen—of althans een tijd lang—zodat die ene arm die je hebt in zo’n lijn interferometer verschillende positiehoeken ten opzichte van de hemel maakt; als je die samenvoegt kun je het tweedimensionale beeld krijgen.’
58.
‘Press Release: The 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics’. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1974/press.html (accessed on 10 July 2012).
59.
The article that is meant is Ryle (1962)
60.
Aperture synthesis or synthesis is a type of interferometry that mixes signals from several telescopes to produce images that have the same angular resolution as an instrument that would have the size of the largest baseline of the array. Most interferometers use the rotation of the Earth to increase the number of baselines (the distance between two aerials) included in an observation. When data are taken at different times, measurements with different telescope separations and angles are provided, without the need for moving the telescope manually. The rotation of the Earth, namely, moves the telescopes automatically to new baselines.
61.
Christiansen, W.N., A high-resolution aerial for radio astronomy, in: Nature, 171 (1953), p. 831.
62.
Also in the Netherlands, computers have revolutionised the speed of computation in astronomy since the 1960s, see: Van Helvoort 2012, 62–76.
63.
Earth-rotation-based aperture synthesis was by often referred to as ‘super synthesis’ in Britain.
64.
Ryle to Oort, 21 December 1961, OA, 114c.
65.
Högbom to Oort, 11 August 1959, OA, 112c.
66.
Capital letters in original.
67.
Erickson does not mention when Högbom visited Cambridge. Probably, this must have been somewhere at the end of 1962 or the beginning of 1963. However, we could not find any information in the archives about a journey of Högbom to Cambridge in this period.
68.
The annual Herstmonceux conferences (which took place at the Royal Greenwich Observatory at Herstmonceux in East Sussex, UK) were organised by the British Astronomer Royal Sir Richard Woolley in 1957 (Parker 2000, 287).
69.
‘Onder deze omstandigheden vragen zij zich af, of het niet verkieslijker zou zijn dan maar een meer bescheiden opzet te verwezenlijken zonder Belgische deelname, zo mogelijk in aansluiting op Dwingelo (…)’: Piekaar to Lefèvre, 13 January 1964, SA, NWO.
70.
Oort, J.H., ‘Memorandum over de te bouwen grote radiotelescoop’, Leiden, 13 January 1964, SA, NWO.
71.
Ferrier, ‘Notitie met betrekking tot de Vergadering van de Raad voor het Benelux-Kruisantenneproject, gehouden te Leiden op 17 maart 1964’, SA, NWO.
72.
Minutes of the executive committee meeting of SRZM of 19 October 1959, SA.
73.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 20 September 1962; minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 21 January 1963, SA.
74.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP held on 17 October 1963, SA.
75.
Personal communication of Williams to author, 26 August 2016.
76.
Bannier to the [Dutch] Minister of Education, 27 May 1965, SA, NWO.
77.
Werkspoor Utrecht to Stichting Radiostraling van Zon en Melkweg, 15 January 1965; Wilton Feijenoord to Oort, 13 January 1965, SA.
78.
Bannier to Ferrier, 21 August 1964, SA, NWO.
79.
Note added on 20 December 1965 on the minutes of the meeting of 11 October 1965, SA.
80.
Minutes of the meeting of the BCAP, held on 4 July 1960, SA.
81.
Westerhout, G., ‘Report on the preliminary site survey in the Netherlands’ (Appendix at minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 21 February 1961), SA.
82.
I.e. the ‘Kraloërheide’.
83.
Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 17 March 1964, SA.
84.
Raimond, E., ‘Possible sites for the Benelux Antenna in Drente’ [sic: Drente was by then often written Drente], 30 April 1964, SA, NWO.
85.
Reuzen-telescoop komt in Westerbork, in: De waarheid, 1 July 1965. Some other examples: Grootste ter wereld. Telescoop in Westerbork tast naar «grenzen» in het heelal, in: Friese Koerier, 27 May 1968; Bij Westerbork verrijst enorme radiotelescoop. Waarschijnlijk volgend jaar in gebruik, in: Friese Koerier, 16 July 1968.
86.
See also the report it issued in 1957: Ambonezen in Nederland: rapport van de commissie ingesteld bij besluit van de Minister van Maatschappelijk Werk, d.d. 24 Sept. 1957 nr. U 2598.
87.
Minutes of the board meeting of SRZM of 30 June 1967, SA.
88.
‘Burgemeester P. de Noord van Smilde heeft gisteravond aan het begin van de gemeenteraadsvergadering meegedeeld, dat de thans nog in het kamp «Schattenberg» bij Westerbork verblijvende Ambonezen in Bovensmilde zullen worden gehuisvest. (…) De besprekingen over de verhuizing van deze Ambonezen, die «Schattenberg» zullen moeten verlaten in verband met de bouw van een radiotelescoop aldaar, zijn zeer gunstig verlopen, aldus de burgemeester’. Nieuwsblad van het Noorden, 27 October 1967.
89.
Toelichting bij de begroting 1968, SA, NWO.
90.
Minutes of the board meeting of SRZM of 19 August 1964, SA; minutes of the board meeting of SRZM of 14 May 1965, SA.
91.
‘Natuur en techniek hebben elkaar gevonden in de 1200 hectare grote boswachterij ‘Hooghalen’.
92.
Oort to the Ministry of Education and Sciences, 12 July 1967, SA, NWO.
93.
‘Gezien het grote wetenschappelijke belang dat met de stichting van de radio-telescoop wordt gediend, bestaan van defensiezijde tegen een verplaatsing naar elders in beginsel geen bezwaren (…)’. Taks, A.M.J., Colonel of the Army, to the Director of the State Office for the National Plan, 24 August 1964, SA, NWO.
94.
Taks, A.M.J., Colonel of the Army, to the Director of the State Office for the National Plan, 24 August 1964, SA, NWO.
95.
Oort to Piekaar, 25 March 1965, SA, NWO.
96.
Minutes of the board meeting of SRZM of 14 May 1965, SA.
97.
Rinia to Oort, 18 March 1965, SA, NWO.
98.
Muller to Oort, 5 April 1965, SA, NWO.
99.
Blaauw to Oort, 23 March 1965, SA, NWO.
100.
Blaauw to Oort, 23 March 1965, SA, NWO. In hindsight, this was a very smart suggestion of Blaauw: in 2011, for example, a prize contest was organised to rename New Mexico’s ‘Very Large Array’, a giant radio telescope that was commissioned in 1980. According to the US consumer magazine Popular Science, the Very Large Array was ‘named in a fine tradition of utilitarian monikers like the European Extremely Large Telescope and the ultimately impractical Overwhelmingly Large Telescope’ (Adams 2011). The ‘European Extremely Large Telescope’ is an ESO-telescope that will be the largest ground-based optical/near-infrared telescope in the world and will be built in Cerro Armazones (Chile). The ‘Overwhelmingly Large Telescope’ was a conceptual design of ESO that was ultimately given up because of the high cost and the complexity. The simpler European Extremely Large Telescope was chosen instead. The Very Large Array got its new name in January 2012: it is now called the ‘Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array’.
101.
Stichting Radiostraling van Zon en Melkweg. Annual report 1967, p. 25.
102.
Stichting Radiostraling van Zon en Melkweg. Annual report 1967, p. 26. Remember that Philips had been involved in radio astronomy since its very beginnings.
103.
Stichting Radiostraling van Zon en Melkweg. Annual report 1968, p. 23.
104.
‘Het is rampzalig dat, terwijl de staalconstructies te Westerbork op 1 november klaar zullen zijn, de telescoop pas verscheidene maanden later zal kunnen worden gebruikt’. Minutes of the board meeting of SRZM of 24 June 1968, SA.
105.
Minutes of the board meeting of SRZM of 13 December 1968, SA.
106.
‘Over de gehele linie moet men zeggen dat het werk ten dele onderschat is, ten dele ook vertraagd door externe factoren’. Minutes of the board meeting of SRZM of 13 December 1968, SA.
107.
Stichting Radiostraling van Zon en Melkweg. Annual report 1969, p. 24.
108.
‘H.M. Koningin Juliana opent radiosterrenwacht Westerbork’, s.d., SA, NWO.
109.
‘Verslag van het interne Nederlands overleg over de Nederlands-Belgische samenwerking inzake het Synthese Radiotelescoop Project’, held on 6 December 1965, SA, NWO.
110.
Bannier, J.H., ‘Nota over de Belgische achterstand in de betaling voor de radioastronomische samenwerking’, 26 July 1966, SA, NWO.
111.
Bannier, J.H., ‘Nota over de Belgische achterstand in de betaling voor de radioastronomische samenwerking’, 26 July 1966, SA, NWO; Bannier to the Minister of Education and Sciences, 6 March 1967, SA, NWO.
112.
‘(…) j’ai reçu instruction du Ministère de l’Education Nationale d’arrêter provisoirement tout transfert au compte BCAP aux Pays-Bas en attendant les résultats des discussions entre parties intéressées’. Coutrez to Otker, 9 February 1966, SA, NWO.
113.
‘(…) bijzonder op prijs stellen als U Uw hoge invloed wilde aanwenden om een snelle afdoening van de achterstallige betalingen te regelen’. Otker to Darimont, 22 February 1966.
114.
Bannier, J.H., ‘Nota over de Belgische achterstand in de betaling voor de radioastronomische samenwerking’, 26 July 1966, SA, NWO. Bannier also mentions that the OEEC was also bound to give support in the ‘preparatory stage’. However, as the ‘preparatory stage’ did not come ‘officially’ to an end, the contract with OEEC was also never officially ended. OEEC ended the support after 1962, as the organisation had no money available to support this project further.
115.
Deloz to Bannier, 26 March 1968, SA, NWO.
116.
Bannier to Deloz, 9 April 1968, SA, NWO.
117.
Bannier to Deloz, 17 September 1968, SA, NWO.
118.
Bannier to Deloz, 1 May 1969: Bannier to Deloz, 17 September 1969; Bannier to Deloz, 27 October 1969, SA, NWO.
119.
Deloz to Coutrez, 5 December 1969, SA, NWO.
120.
Bannier to Deloz, 28 May 1970, SA, NWO.
121.
Minutes of the board meeting SRZM of 4 February 1971, SA, NWO.
122.
See for example: Bannier, J.H., ‘Nota over de Belgische achterstand in de betaling voor de radioastronomische samenwerking’, 26 July 1966, SA, NWO.
123.
Personal communication of Jean Casse to author, 8 February 2012.
124.
The largest Belgian company of light bulbs and electronic components, the Manufacture Belge de Lampes et Matériel Electronique (MBLE), was the only Belgian company that was involved in the BCAP. It developed a parametric amplifier for 408 MHz. In the end, this amplifier was not used, as the operating wavelength was changed to 1420 MHz. MBLE did not wish to be reimbursed for the amount of Bfr 267 500 which had been allotted for this work, but in return, it wanted to keep the rights on the results for itself. The Council of the BCAP agreed. See: Minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 11 December 1961; minutes of the Council meeting of the BCAP of 17 March 1964, SA.
125.
The amounts in the table come from the Annual Reports of ZWO of 1960 up to and including 1970.
126.
‘Naar aanleiding van de jongste vergadering van het Ministerieel Comité heb ik het genoegen U thans zonder verwijl mede te delen dat het Ministerieel Comité beslist heeft dat België zou deelnemen in de werkingskosten van de radiotelescoop (…). De deelneming van België zou evenwel het bedrag van de 7 miljoen F per jaar niet overschrijden’. Spaey to Oort, 19 February 1965, SA, NWO.
127.
Minutes of the board meeting of SRZM of 23 November 1965, SA.
128.
‘Zoals U bekend zal zijn heeft de Regering in het kader van het loon-en prijsbeleid besloten tot een beperking van de overheidsuitgaven door invoering van een personeelsstop, door temporisering van de investeringen en door het betrachten van de nodige terughoudendheid bij het doen van andere uitgaven. Deze maatregelen gelden in eerste instantie voor de departementen en rijksdiensten, alsmede voor de verdere overheidsdiensten. Voor lichamen die hiertoe niet behoren maar die wel voor het grootste deel uit rijksgelden worden gefinancierd gelden de bepalingen formeel niet in strikte zin, maar de Regering heeft op hen een zeer duidelijk beroep gedaan zich zoveel mogelijk bij de bezuinigingsmaatregelen aan te sluiten en zij zullen zich daaraan niet kunnen onttrekken. Zulk een beroep is ook gedaan op Z.W.O. en wij moeten dat onzerzijds weer doen op Uw Stichting’. Bannier to the Board of SRZM, 22 July 1966, SA, NWO.
129.
Bannier to the Board of SRZM, 22 July 1966, SA, NWO.
130.
Specificly for the budgets of ZWO, see: Annual reports ZWO, 1960–1965.
131.
Bannier to Oort, 9 September 1963, SA, NWO.
132.
For example: Oort to Blaauw, 9 January 1963, SA, NWO.
133.
‘Ik wijs U er nogmaals op dat ik ernstig bezwaar heb tegen de wijze waarop U bij voortduring stukken ter goedkeuring aan mij voorlegt op (en zelfs ná) de datum waarop de beslissing moet worden genomen. Dergelijke stukken neem ik in het vervolg niet meer in behandeling, tenzij plausibele redenen voor de late indiening worden aangevoerd’. Bannier to Oort, 8 December 1965, SA, NWO.
134.
‘De laatste alinea van Uw schrijven heeft mij verwonderd. Ik besef volkomen dat onze verzoeken aan Uw Organisatie om beslissingen op korte termijn voor U bezwaarlijk kunnen zijn. Ik geloof echter dat wij het erover eens zijn dat, mede in verband met in de Verenigde Staten bestaande plannen voor de bouw van samengestelde radiotelescopen, een zo snel mogelijke bouw van de radiotelescoop een essentiële factor is voor de waarde van het project. Het is daarom nodig dat wij, wanneer ontwerpen gereed zijn, op korte termijn de contracten voor de fabricage kunnen afsluiten, terwijl ook tot meer incidentele voorzieningen af en toe snel besloten zal moeten kunnen worden. Bovendien mag niet uit het oog verloren worden dat door de samenhang van de onderdelen van het werk vertraging van één deel dikwijls ernstige vertraging van andere werkzaamheden meebrengt. (…) Maar zelfs indien deze redenen niet afdoende geweest zouden zijn, moet ik ernstige bezwaren maken tegen de strekking van de laatste alinea van Uw brief. Ik kan moeilijk meer accepteren als een schooljongen terechtgewezen te worden’. Oort to Bannier, 15 December 1965, SA, NWO.
135.
‘het regime is veranderd van democratisch in autoritair’. Bannier to Oort, 4 January 1966, SA, NWO.
136.
Minutes of the board meeting of SRZM of 23 November 1965, SA, NWO.
137.
‘Je had de zaak met (…) het Kerkhoven-fonds al geheel in kannen en kruiken en stelde deze (…) aan het bestuur zó voor dat dit bijna niet meer anders kon doen dan akkoord gaan’. Bannier to Oort, 4 January 1966, SA, NWO.
138.
Oort to Bannier, 15 December 1965, SA, NWO.
139.
‘(…) begrijp je dus nog steeds niet(…) hoe hopeloos de situatie er op het ogenblik ongetwijfeld zou hebben uitgezien indien Z.W.O. er zich niet energiek mee bemoeid had maar de zaak volgens de voorgeschreven ambtelijke wegen behandeld zou zijn door het Departement. Zelfs de aanbesteding van de parabolen zou dan wellicht nog niet hebben plaatsgehad’. Oort to Bannier, 15 December 1965, SA, NWO.
140.
Bannier to the Board of SRZM, 30 December 1965, SA, NWO.
141.
‘Het bestuur is van mening dat een verdergaande aanzienlijke verlaging van de jaarlijkse kosten niet mogelijk is zonder een wezenlijke aantasting van het gehele project van de synthese telescoop’. Oort to the Ministry of Education and Sciences, 17 February 1967, SA, NWO.
142.
‘Source counts’ are the increase in the number of radio sources as one observes fainter sources (Van der Kruit 2011, p. 21). It is the statistical relation between numbers and flux density of radio sources. The predicted relation differs for the various models of the structure and evolution of the universe.
143.
Steady state fitted into the world view of the Soviets, see: Elbers 2012, 21.
144.
Interview of Martin Rees by Alan Lightman on 30 March 1988, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD USA, http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/34300.html (accessed on 6 September 2012).
145.
The steradian is the unit to measure a solid angle.
146.
Ironically, the name ‘Big Bang’ was invented by Fred Hoyle. In 1949, Hoyle appeared on the BBC radio programme The Nature of Things, in which he defended the steady-state theory. When his opinion was asked on the idea that the universe had started at a definite moment and point in time in the past—an idea that was first suggested by Georges Lemaître in 1927—Hoyle responded that he could not conceive of the universe as having been born in what he contemptuously referred to as ‘Big Bang’ (Kidger 2007, 157).
147.
The whole issue was superseded by the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation by the American radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in 1964. Cosmic microwave background radiation is a kind of ‘left over’ radiation from an early stage in the development of the universe. Its discovery secured the Big Bang as the best theory of the origin and evolution of the cosmos (Schiller 2010, 27).
148.
Bourgeois and Oort to the Governing Committee on Scientific and Technical Personnel, 3 November 1958, SA, NWO.
149.
Oort to Ryle, 12 February 1963, OA, 33.
150.
Oort, J.H., Proposal for constructing the Benelux radiotelescope as a synthesis instrument, 25 March 1964, SA, NWO.
151.
‘Het ligt voor de hand dat deze eerste programma’s zullen worden gekozen uit die onderwerpen waarvoor de synthese-telescoop bijzonder geschikt is: gedetailleerde structuur (…) van heldere radiobronnen; ontdekking, en bepaling van de globale eigenschappen (hoekafmeting, flux, polarisatie), van zwakkere radiobronnen; statistiek van de eigenschappen van radiobronnen – ter bepaling van hun verdeling in de ruimte en hun betekenis voor de kosmologie; ruimtelijke verdeling, intensiteit en polarisatie van de continue radiostraling in nabije sterrenstelsels’. Stichting Radiostraling van Zon en Melkweg, Programma van werkzaamheden voor het jaar 1969, 29 August 1968, SA, NWO.
152.
As they have a ‘starlike’ appearance, quasars were initially called ‘quasi-stellar radio source’, which was in 1964 shortened to ‘quasar’.
153.
S.n. ‘Vijftien jaar ontdekkingen met de Westerbork Telescoop’ [1986], SA, NWO.
154.
‘De ontdekkingen zijn even gevarieerd als de verschillen tussen de tropische rijkdom van de Molukken en de kale berghellingen van Vuurland.’ S.n. ‘Vijftien jaar ontdekkingen met de Westerbork Telescoop’ [1986], SA, NWO.

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Elbers, A. (2017). The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. In: The Rise of Radio Astronomy in the Netherlands. Historical & Cultural Astronomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49079-3_5

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