X-rays from the Sun, for example,
we’ve got to get up above the atmosphere and go into space.
“There are two wavelength bands
where the atmosphere is transparent and lets in radiation from outside. One is at visible wavelengths.
After all you can see the stars at
night and that means that the sky is
transparent to visible light. The other
is in the radio. The long wavelengths
of radio waves, the low energy photons, come pretty much unimpeded through the atmosphere. Only
at visible and radio wavelengths
can astronomy be done from the
ground. If you want to study ultraviolet, or most infrared emission, or
X-rays, you’ve got to go into space.
So again, it’s complementary.”
Q:
How did you become an
astronomer and end up
working with the NRAO?
Lockman: “I was always inter-
ested in science. Luckily, I got to
attend Drexel University in Philadelphia. It has a cooperative education program that puts students to
work in industries related to their
major field of study for six months
out of each year. You actually work
in your profession and get paid! In
that program it took five years instead of four to get a degree, but
it was worth it. I was lucky enough
to get a position as an undergraduate research assistant at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Headquarters in Charlottesville,
Virginia.
“So as a teenager I was thrown
into a research environment and
just loved it. I really thrived on being
around scientists who were active
in research, and I loved the whole
scientific endeavor. I would come
to work on a Monday morning and
there would be someone who had
found something interesting that
they wanted to talk about. It was a
very exciting experience.
“I’ve also always enjoyed talking
about research, and I’m more than
happy to speak to people or make
presentations and try to inspire the
next generation -- not necessarily to
become astronomers, but to con-
12
12
The Green Bank Telescope is the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope. Sitting within
the heart of the National Radio Quiet Zone, The telescope focuses 2.3 acres of radio light on
sensitive receivers at the top of the telescope. It is 485 feet tall which is nearly as tall as
Photo: Walter Scriptunas II
the nearby mountains.
sider careers in science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
A lot of kids these days don’t have
good local role models that would
allow them to think that maybe
they could become a scientist. Or
maybe they could become a mechanical engineer or a mechanic
on a large structure like a radio telescope. It’s important to get out and
get the message out.”
Q:
There have been news reports that consideration is
being given to closing the
Green Bank Telescope facility for
budgetary reasons. Is that true?
Lockman: “This is not our
choice. This is something that the
National Science Foundation is considering, and it would mean a massive reduction in the radio astronomy capability of the United States.
There’s no other telescope that can
do the majority of the research that
is done here in Green Bank. It would
be a major loss of scientific facilities
for American astronomers.
“We operate the Geen Bank
Telescope (GBT) for the National
Science Foundation at no charge
to the scientists who use it. Any
scientist, whether at a small college or a large university, who has
a good idea can write a proposal
to use the GBT. These are evaluated by independent scientists, and
the best proposals get time on the
telescope. In the last six years more
than 1,000 individual scientists and
their students have used the GBT
for projects ranging from comets to
cosmology. In recent years federal
funding for most scientific research
has fallen short of what is needed
and the pressure on the GBT is symptomatic of a larger problem.”
Q:
Looking through a telescope seems to be only
a small part of astronomy
research. What else is involved?
Lockman: “Quite a bit. I’m sit-
ting here at my desk in front of several computers. The amounts of
data that we’re getting now can be
so large that you need fairly hefty
computational facilities to make
any progress in analyzing them.
“One of the things that we do with
astronomical radio signals is to try
to turn them into images of the radio sky. If your eyes could see radio
waves, how would the sky appear?
Our eyes are very good at picking
up patterns, and understanding relationships. We understand much
more from points on a graph than
from the same numbers in a table.
The Observatory employs computer
specialists who work in data visualization. It’s an increasingly important
field in astronomy. We have electronics engineers here who build
the one-of-a-kind receivers needed
to pick up and amplify the very faint
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