Owens Valley Radio Observatory

Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) is a radio astronomy observatory located near Big Pine, California (US) in Owens Valley. It lies east of the Sierra Nevada approximately 350 kilometers (220 mi) north of Los Angeles and 20 kilometers (12 mi) southeast of Bishop. It was established in 1958, and is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Owens Valley Solar Array portion of the observatory has been operated by New Jersey Institute of Technology since the transfer in 1997. Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) is a radio astronomy observatory located near Big Pine, California (US) in Owens Valley. It lies east of the Sierra Nevada approximately 350 kilometers (220 mi) north of Los Angeles and 20 kilometers (12 mi) southeast of Bishop. It was established in 1958, and is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Owens Valley Solar Array portion of the observatory has been operated by New Jersey Institute of Technology since the transfer in 1997. One of the ten dish-antenna radiotelescope systems of the Very Long Baseline Array is located on a sublease within the Owens Valley observatory. The Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO), the largest university-operated radio observatory in the United States, came to life in the late 1940s through the influence of three individuals: Lee DuBridge, president of California Institute of Technology (Caltech); Robert Bacher, chairman of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy; and Jesse Greenstein, professor of astrophysics. In 1954, Caltech occupied a central position in the American radio astronomy program. John Bolton and Gordon Stanley, two respected Australian astronomers, joined the Caltech faculty in order to undertake the construction of large dishes. In 1956 the first radio telescope, a 32-foot (9.8 m) antenna, was erected on Palomar Mountain. It was dismantled in 1958 and transferred to the Owens Valley site. At the same time, two 90-foot (27.4 m) telescopes were completed. Ten years later, an even bigger antenna, a 130-foot (39.6 m) dish was finished. The last major instrument at the observatory is the millimeter-wave array. It consists of six 34-foot (10.4 m) dishes (also called Leighton's dishes). OVRO, owned by Caltech, is one of the biggest radio observatories owned by a university. OVRO uses its telescopes and other instruments (listed below) to improve on the locations of radio sources in the sky, as well as to study hydrogen clouds within the Milky Way. The research that takes place at the observatory includes studies on blazars, the cosmic microwave background, and star formation, and this research is done by the staff at the observatory with help from professors and post-doctoral students from many institutions. The observatory is different from other national radio observatories because of its extensive work with graduate students, who can come to the observatory for long-term observation, benefiting not only the students, but also the observatory as it allows for more comprehensive projects to take place. OVRO staff was largely responsible for operating CARMA, which was located 20 miles (32 km) east of OVRO in the Inyo Mountains, but was decommissioned in 2015. CARMA was a collaboration between Caltech, University of California Berkeley, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, and University of Chicago to observe space at centimeter and millimeter wavelengths with a 23-element interferometer. CARMA used this interferometer to study the origins of planets, stars and galaxies, as well as to measure the distortions in the cosmic microwave background caused by clusters of galaxies formed soon after the Big Bang.