Daily Image
25-04-2022
Kootwijk Würzburg found!
| Submitter: | Tammo Jan Dijkema, Ger Geertsma, Ard Hartsuijker, Frans de Jong |
| Description: | The dish at the origin of ASTRON's history was long thought to be lost. The Kootwijk dish, originally a Würzburg-Riese German radar dish, was the second telescope ever to detect the hydrogen line, in May 1951. It was the first telescope ever used to study the shape of the Milky Way's spiral arms. The Kootwijk dish was superseded in 1956 by the Dwingeloo telescope. A lot of the equipment from the Kootwijk Würzburg was moved into the Dwingeloo telescope. Next to the Dwingeloo telescope, also two Würzburg radar dishes were placed. These were not from Kootwijk, but were imported from Norway. The fate of the original Kootwijk Würzburg has long been unclear. Historian Ger Geertsma has concluded after a study of many photos that the Kootwijk Würzburg is the dish that stood in the public observatory in Hoeven for a long time, and is currently in storage at Museum Deelen. There, it is being restored into its original state as a radar dish (FuMG 65). The proof that the Kootwijk dish is indeed the one now in Deelen is in many details that distinguish it from other Würzburg dishes. The picture shows two of these details: four holes around the antenna base in the dish, and two extra supporting struts at the top of the dish. There is a longer write-up at the CAMRAS website, as well as a write-up on the 70th anniversary of detecting the HI-line. |
| Copyright: | Arie Hin, ASTRON archive |
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