Voyager antenna operator: 'I was the first human to see images from Neptune'
theregister.co.uk
theregister.co.uk
When my son and I toured Goldstone they showed us the equipment required to amplify the signal from Voyager... explaining how the signal is roughly 1 atta watt (1E-21)!!
The genius required to receive and process that is mind boggling.
https://www.eevblog.com/2017/04/19/how-to-contact-the-voyage...
Definitely worth watching for anyone who's into this stuff.
The Very Large Array in southwest New Mexico was also upgraded for the Voyager at Neptune campaign. The backup diesel generators are still very much appreciated, although the Sun workstations were already yielding to Linux kit when I showed up in 1999.
Here's to the telescope operators, they deserve more fame.
Yes, the antenna made famous by "The Dish", as the antenna that received the first footsteps from the Moon is 300km away at Parkes. However, the movie took some license with the truth so the antenna that actually received the first footsteps and rightfully owns the fame was the Honeysuckle Creek antenna at the then NASA tracking station: which was a few kilometres away from the current Canberra Deep Space Tracking Complex at Tidbinbilla (the subject of the article).
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Edit: The Honeysuckle Creek antenna was moved to Tidbinbilla, where it saw further service and now remains as an historic landmark.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeysuckle_Creek_Tracking_Sta...