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Web editor note: This book mentions Col. John DeWitt and Project Diana, which beat him to open the science of radar astronomy by bouncing an electronic signal off the moon. See pages 178-9 below.

Astronomer by Chance By Bernard Lovell. 1990
Copyright © 1990 by Bernard Lovell

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation series
ISBN 0-465-00512-8

Contents

Preface to the Series ix

1 Introduction    1
2 The Years of Boyhood and Innocence    15
3 The Years in the University of Bristol, 1931-1936    23
4 Blackett and Bragg—Manchester, 1936-1939    34
5 The War Years, 1939-1941: The Development of Centimetric Radar    44
6 The War Years, 1942-1945: The Whirlwind Years    64
7 The Transition from War to Peace—Jodrell Bank 105
8 Meteoric Phenomena    131
9 The First of the Large Radio Telescopes    149
10 Radio Astronomy—A New Science    163
11 The Moon and the Aurora Borealis    177
12 The Dream of the Telescope    191
13 The First Design Study, June 1950-March 1951    204
14 The Building of the Telescope: The Year of Decision    212
15 The Building of the Telescope: The Early Years of Construction, 1952-1953    220
16 The Building of the Telescope: The Later Years of Construction, 1954-1957    232
17 The Impact of Sputnik    255
18 Lunik and Pioneer 5—The End of Debt    267
19 Astronomical Research: Radar Astronomy    274
20 Astronomical Research: Radio Astronomy    283
21 Mark IA and MERLIN    308
22 Diversions from the Workbench: Affairs of Defense    316
23 Diversions from the Workbench: The Myth of Power    327
24 My Life and Thought    339

Glossary    359
Index    369
Illustrations    following 208

Pages 178-9

The First Radar Contacts with the Moon

We had long since lost in any semblance of a race to be the first to obtain radar echoes from the moon. We came in fourth. Remarkably the first two successes were achieved within a few weeks in America and Hungary. Unknown to us, John H. De Witt, the chief engineer of an American broadcasting station, had made preliminary attempts to reflect radio waves from the moon in 1940 by using the transmitter of a New York radio station. These attempts did not succeed, and by 1942 De Witt was engulfed in radar research for the American army. After VJ-day, in August 1945, having several months still to serve as a lieutenant colonel in the army, he seized this opportunity of returning to the moon problem by assembling a powerful radar system under the guise of an official directive to develop a system for the detection and control of guided missiles. His "Project Diana" evolved in this way by means of U.S. wartime radar equipment on a wavelength of 2.6 meters. After several months of failure following the first trial with the system, in September 1945, success came on 10 January 1946. De Witt and his colleagues on Project Diana soon returned to private life. Although the project was an engineering success, there were few results of value from this first detection of radar echoes from the moon.

src="../photos/lovell-1991-echoes-of-war-spine-i.jpg" title="" alt="" style="border: 0px solid ; width: 35px; height: 300px;"> Also by Bernard Lovell. Echoes of war: The story of H2S radar. - 1991

Page updated November 24, 2004 Page created November 24, 2004

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