Blaw-Knox Polar Mount Cassegrain 26m Radio Telescope

The radio telescope at Hartbeesthoek regularly operates as part of arrays of radio telescopes around the Earth and in space. When operating in this way, data are recorded simultaneously from each object at the same time at each telescope. The data streams from the telescopes are correlated later by computer. The interference pattern observed between the signals recorded at each pair of telescopes allows the brightness distribution of the radio source to be reconstructed and an image of it created.