Advances in Radio Telescopes [Scanning the Issue

Abstract

The editors of the third Special Issue on Radio Telescopes, which appeared in the Proceedings of the IEEE in May 1994, surmised in their introduction that "perhaps yet a future issue is merited, one devoted to those new telescopes that are still on the drawing boards." Now, 15 years later, such an issue lies in front of you, featuring 16 papers describing both the realization of new instruments and the status of several giant radio telescopes, most of which are moving from the drawing board to different stages of construction. The development of astronomy over this period has led radio astronomers to concentrate on both the highest and the lowest ranges of the radio spectrum. The technological advance in the millimeter wavelength domain has enabled an enormous improvement in observing capabilities. In the low frequency range, roughly 10 - 2000 MHz, new telescopes are being planned that combine a large instantaneous field of view with a large number of high- resolution antenna beams. In addition to these developments, this issue features papers on several new single aperture telescopes. We also have three papers covering advances in technologies that are applicable to multiple projects, namely, antenna metrology, imaging techniques, and the use of phased array techniques. The issue begins with a short paper by the guest editors on "Radio Astronomy in the Early Twenty-First Century." There we attempt to put the topics of the following papers in historical perspective and to provide background information for readers whose expertise lies outside astronomy. The remaining papers are organized into three broad categories: single antenna telescopes, synthesis array telescopes, and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Although the last is also a synthesis array, the intensity of SKA-related work now under way around the world justifies a separate set of papers devoted to it. This issue features new single-aperture and synthesis array radio telescopes and covers advances in antenna metrology, imaging techniques, and the use of phased array technology.