APOD: Radio, The Big Ear, and the Wow! Signal (2020 May 02)

[APOD Robot]

Radio, The Big Ear, and the Wow! Signal

Explanation: Since the early days of radio and television we have been freely broadcasting signals into space. For some time now, we have been listening too. A large radio telescope at Ohio State University known as affectionately The Big Ear was one of the first listeners. The Big Ear was about the size of three football fields and consisted of an immense metal ground plane with two fence-like reflectors, one fixed and one tiltable. It relied on the Earth's rotation to help scan the sky. This photo, taken by former Big Ear student volunteer Rick Scott, looks out across the ground plane toward the fixed reflector with the radio frequency receiver horns in the foreground. Starting in 1965, the Big Ear was used in an ambitious survey of the radio sky. In the 1970s, it became the first telescope to continuously listen for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. For an exciting moment during August 1977 a very strong, unexpected signal, dubbed the Wow! Signal, was detected by the Big Ear. But alas, heard only once, the source of the signal could not be determined. In May 1998 the final pieces of the Big Ear were torn down. <br><br>

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[GeoXXXXX]

I live just a few miles from where this telescope was but unfortunately I never actually went and looked at it...





Unfortunately it’s now a golf course

Always thought it was kinda of neat and funny as well that Ohio would be where we first made contact. Of course we had aliens living here all along (Third Rock From the !).

[orin stepanek]

It's a shame that a piece of history was torn down; but will last a long time in the hearts of believers! JMO!

[neufer]

It's a shame that a piece of history was torn down; but will last a long time in the hearts of believers! JMO!

Hayes's childhood home in Delaware, Ohio

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<<Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States from 1877 to 1881, having served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as governor of Ohio. Hayes, a lawyer and staunch abolitionist, defended refugee slaves in court proceedings in the antebellum years. Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, on October 4, 1822, to Rutherford Hayes, Jr. and Sophia Birchard. Hayes's father, a Vermont storekeeper, took the family to Ohio in 1817. He died ten weeks before Rutherford's birth.

The Hayes home no longer stands, but a historical marker in front of a BP station marks the location.>>

I live just a few miles from where this telescope was but unfortunately I never actually went and looked at it...

Always thought it was kinda of neat and funny as well that Ohio would be where we first made contact. Of course we had aliens living here all along (Third Rock From the !).

<<The premise of the 3rd Rock from the Sun revolves around an extraterrestrial research expedition hailing from a planet in a barred spiral galaxy on the Cepheus-Draco border attempting to live as a normal human family in the fictional city of Rutherford, Ohio, said to be 52 mi outside of Cleveland, where they live in an attic apartment. The show's humor is principally derived from the aliens' attempts to study human society and understand the human condition, while living as humans on Earth, reflecting on human life from the perspective of aliens. Most of the episodes are named after the protagonist, Dick Solomon.

The Big Giant Head is the Solomons' mission leader and king of the galaxy. He was an unseen character at first, and even then very rarely referred to. When Harry expressed that he was upset about not serving any useful purpose in the mission, the family revealed to him that he was modified to serve as the transmitter that relayed messages from the Big Giant Head, from which point the character then "spoke" through Harry. He apparently got his job by "outrunning the fireball". Though the Solomons are subordinate to the Big Giant Head, they sometimes express dissatisfaction with his leadership, with Dick declaring at one point that he only got the job because he "kissed the Big Giant Butt.">>

[Fred Pellmann]

Loved that picture, first time I see the beautiful job they did. the fine workmanship and attention to good antenna engineering for those days . But the reason for this message to you is the fact that no one paid a hats off to John Kraus, the Director and driving force behind this massive project. He not only talked about SETI, He was one of the early individuals that did something about it. I seem to recall that he passed away some years ago. Seems a shame that his pioneering work should be forgotten, and some student takes the credit.

Thank you to you Robert and your partner and the whole staff. I am sure that most days you might have trouble deciding what gets published.

Keep up the good work, You folks make us eager to look every day, and think about what it all means.

Fred Pellmann founder and past president [ 11 years ] of the Astronomy Club of Palm Coast, Florida