The Gregorian Upgrade and Angel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center

While the new reflector surface opened up many opportunities for new research initiatives as described in the previous chapter, utilizing its full capabilities was still hampered by the need to use line feeds with their limited bandwidths. This prompted Frank Drake in the late 1970s to begin looking into the possibility of changing to a Gregorian secondary reflector coupled with a third reflector to correct for the spherical aberration of the primary reflector. This in turn led to an extended effort under the new NAIC director, Tor Hagfors, to develop the concept, obtain the funding and initiate a major upgrading of the telescope and planetary radar system that would lead to a much more versatile and sensitive telescope for radio and radar astronomy and ionospheric observations. Hagfors resigned in early 1992 during the very early stages of the construction work. He was succeeded by Paul Goldsmith in early 1993 with Don Campbell filling in for the intervening year. Contracts were let for the structural modification to the telescope including the Gregorian dome, the reflectors, and a new 2.38 GHz transmitter. The “new” telescope came on line in 1997. At the same time, the Angel Ramos Foundation Visitor Center was designed, built, equipped with displays and completed also in 1997.