Department of Astronomy - Department History

Some History of the Department of Astronomy
Over forty years ago on October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the first man-made earth satellite. The U of I Astronomy Department, then consisting of four professors (McVittie, Wyatt, King and Swenson) was quick off the mark in exploiting that research opportunity. On that first night an improvised radio interferometer was built in the space between the Morrow Plots and the Observatory, with receiving and recording equipment in the basement. Within two days an ephemeris was communicated to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Naval Research Laboratory, and on November 9 a precise ephemeris was published in Nature. This paper was the first observational publication of the U of I Observatory in the "modern" era, and was the basis of NASA's definitive orbit (by Robert Jastrow) for Sputnik I.

This activity continued with subsequent Soviet and US satellites, generating a new program in ionosphere research which continues to today (in the ECE Department). It also attracted the first federally funded research program of the "new" Astronomy Department, possibly in the department's entire history, and established the creditability which made possible the funding for the radio astronomy program and the Vermilion River Observatory.

A history of the University of Illinois 400 ft. radio telescope
A history of the University of Illinois 120 ft. radio telescope

A timeline of the historic University of Illinois 12-inch telescope

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