This book demonstrates how progress in radio astronomy is intimately linked to the development of reflector antennas of increasing size and precision. The authors describe the design and construction of major radio telescopes as those in Dwingeloo, Jodrell Bank, Parkes, Effelsberg and Green Bank since 1950 up to the present as well as millimeter wavelength telescopes as the 30m MRT of IRAM in Spain, the 50m LMT in Mexico and the ALMA submillimeter instrument. The advances in methods of structural design and coping with environmental influences (wind, temperature, gravity) as well as application of new materials are explained in a non-mathematical, descriptive and graphical way along with the story of the telescopes. Emphasis is placed on the interplay between astronomical and electromagnetic requirements and structural, mechanical and control solutions. A chapter on management aspects of large telescope projects closes the book. The authors address a readership with interest in the progress of engineering solutions applied to the development of radio telescope reflectors and ground station antennas for satellite communication and space research. The book will also be of interest to historians of science and engineering with an inclination to astronomy.

Reflector antennas are widely used in the microwave and millimeter wavelength domain. Radio astronomers have developed techniques of calibration of large antennas with radio astronomical methods. These have not been comprehensively described. This text aims to fill this gap. It takes a practical approach to the characterisation of antennas. All calculations and results in the form of tables and figures have been made with Mathematica by Wolfram Research. The reader can use the procedures for the implementation of his own input data. The book should be of use to all who are involved in the design and calibration of large antennas, like ground station managers and engineers, practicing radio astronomers and graduate students in radio astronomy and communication technology.

Radio astronomers have developed techniques of calibration of large reflector antennas with radio astronomical methods, but these have not been comprehensively described. This text aims to fill this gap, taking a practical approach to the characterisation of antennas. All calculations and results in the form of tables and figures have been made with Mathematica by Wolfram Research. The reader can use the procedures for the implementation of his own input data.