Scientists are set to begin debugging the 64-meter Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) in southern Italy and plan to make the first observations later this year.

The 500-ton dish was raised in one piece and placed on its 34-meter-tall platform last year (see videos at http://www.srt.inaf.it/multim/videos). “It was an incredible operation,” says project director Nicolò D’Amico. “Usually, dishes are raised in pieces and then aligned and welded up top.”

The SRT will be used in conjunction with interferometers such as the EVN—the European Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Network. After the 100-meter dish in Effenberg, Germany, the SRT will be the second-largest dish in the network, which links 8 to 13 radio telescopes, depending on frequency. The SRT’s initial sensitivity range is 0.3–22 GHz, with a planned stepwise increase to around 100 GHz. The dish’s 1008 electromechanical actuators, which compensate for gravitational deformations, are especially important at higher frequencies. Says...

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