Historical Notes: Four Decades of Dutch Radio Astronomy, Twenty-Five Years Westerbork Telescope

Abstract

The events and plans resulting in the construction of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope are a logical consequence of the earlier development of astronomical observations at radio-wavelengths in the Netherlands. In turn, the history of Dutch radio astronomy is intimately interwoven with the international developments in the field in the same period. Without trying to be complete, we attempt to note the events and circumstances most relevant to the pre-history and the history of the telescope that is now in its 25th operational year. Some of the information was available in the archives of the Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy. In addition, however, the correspondence of Jan Hendrik Oort, catalogued by Dr. Katgert-Merkelijn (1992), proved to be extremely useful, in particular with regard to the earliest years of Dutch radio astronomy and to the difficulties encountered before the completion of the Westerbork Telescope. The author wishes to thank Dr. Katgert for her invaluable assistance in uncovering letters and documents with background information not recorded in any other archive.