Constructed in 1959 to support Project Echo (NASA’s Passive Communications Satellite Project), the Horn Antenna is located on the [former] Bell Telephone Laboratories campus in Holmdel, NJ. Made of aluminum, the antenna is 50 ft in length with a radiating aperture of 20×20 ft. In 1965 while using the Horn Antenna, Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson stumbled on the (Cosmic) Microwave Background Radiation (more info here) that permeates the universe.
This discovery, hailed as the most important in modern astronomy since Hubble’s finding of expanding universe, provided the evidence that confirmed George Gamow’s and Abbe Georges Lemaitre’s Big Bang Theory of the creation of the universe. This forever changed the science of cosmology – the study of the history of the universe – from a field for unlimited theoretical speculation into a subject disciplined by direct observation. In 1978 Penzias and Wilson received the Nobel Prize for Physics for their momentous discovery.
Thanks be to
dear friend, Pradeep Khowash, and a kind-hearted employee of Alcatel, who shall remain nameless for helping me check this site off my bucket list after nearly half a dozen failed attempts/visits.
EXIF and other information
Archive ID | n21_104-5792 |
Date and Time | 2009-04-02 11:04:33 |
GPS Date and Time | Image does not include relevant information |
GPS Location | 40.39065 N, -74.18457 E, 370 ft (Goolgle Map: Pin | Directions) |
Camera | Nikon D200 |
Lens | AF DX Fisheye-Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G ED |
Focal Length | 10.5 mm (35 mm equivalent: 15.0 mm) |
Mode | Manual |
Shutter Speed | 1/60 second(s) |
Aperture | f/11.0 |
ISO | 100 |
Exposure Bias | 0 |
Flash | No |
Filters | None |
Light Value | 12.8 |
Hyperfocal Distance | 0.48 m |
Focus Distance | 1.33 m |
Depth of Field | inf (0.35 m - inf) |
Field of View | 99.9 deg (3.18 m) |
Tripod | Yes |
Notes/Remarks | ±3 stop and HDR using Photomatix Pro |