The Cambridge Interferometer was a radio telescopeinterferometer built by Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish in the early 1950s to the west of Cambridge (between the Grange Road football ground and the current Cavendish Laboratory). The interferometer consisted of an array of 4 fixed elements to survey the sky, and produced the 3C catalogue of radio sources at 178 MHz, which includes some of the most interesting astronomical objects known. The telescope was operated by the Radio Astronomy Group of Cambridge University. The Parkes 64 metre radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia (the bigger of the two shown) In contrast to an ordinary telescope, which produces visible light images, a radio telescope sees radio waves emitted by radio sources, typically by means of a large parabolic (dish) antenna, or arrays of... Interferometry is the applied science of combining two or more input points of a particular data type, such as optical measurements, to form a greater picture based on the combination of the two sources. ... Sir Martin Ryle (September 27, 1918 – October 14, 1984) was a British radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems (see e. ... Antony Hewish (born Fowey, Cornwall, May 11, 1924) is a British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 (together with fellow radio-astronomer Martin Ryle) for his role in the discovery of pulsars. ... The city of Cambridge is an old English university town and the regional centre of the county of Cambridgeshire. ... The Cavendish Laboratory is Cambridge Universitys Department of Physics, and is part of the universitys School of Physical Sciences. ... 3C may refer to the digital radio station of the same name The Third Cambridge Catalog of Radio Sources (3C) is an astronomical catalogue of celestial radio sources as measured at 159-MHz. ... The Cavendish Astrophysics Group (formerly the Radio Astronomy Group) is based at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University. ... The University of Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ...
Martin Ryle and Antony Hewish received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 for this and other related work. Sir Martin Ryle (September 27, 1918 – October 14, 1984) was a British radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems (see e. ... Antony Hewish (born Fowey, Cornwall, May 11, 1924) is a British radio astronomer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974 (together with fellow radio-astronomer Martin Ryle) for his role in the discovery of pulsars. ... List of Nobel Prize laureates in Physics from 1901 to the present day. ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...
References
Ryle M, Hewish A. 1955. Mem. R. Astron. Soc. 67:97-105
Interferometers are now widely used for spectroscopy, the study of thin films, the testing of precision optics, measurements of refractive indices, and both radio and optical astronomy.
The fringes are a striking example of the wave nature of light: the wavefronts add constructively or destructively, depending on the path difference between the wavefronts, and produce fringes that appear as bright and dark bands, with the bright bands being brighter than the sum of intensities in the two separate wavefronts.
"Interferometers are used as a tool for stellar astrophysics, principally for the measurement of the angular diameters of stars and for the measurement of binary star orbits.
When the interferometer is fully functioning as a precision astrometric instrument we expect to be able to measure star positions from the ground with an accuracy of about 1/1000 of a second of arc.
Interferometers first became practical in the mid-1970s and are now under development in several parts of the world.
One example of an interferometer is the NPOI on Anderson Mesa outside Flagstaff, Arizona.
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