Grote Reber

1962

Date of Birth

December 22, 1911

Date of Death

December 20, 2002

Grote Reber, a young engineering graduate of what is now the Illinois Institute of Technology working as a radio engineer in Chicago, was the first to follow up Karl Jansky’s 1933 announcement of the discovery of radio waves from space. Devoting nights and weekends to his hobby Reber constructed a 9-meter dish antenna in his back yard in suburban Wheaton, Illinois and built three different detectors before finding signals at a frequency of 160 megahertz in 1939. His 1940 and 1944 publications of articles titled “Cosmic Static” in the Astrophysical Journal marked the beginning of intentional radio astronomy. He was the first to express received radio signals in terms of flux density and brightness, first to find evidence that galactic radiation is non-thermal, and first to produce radio maps of the sky. Later, after four years at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST), he went off on his own and pioneered in very long-wavelength radio astronomy, working in Tasmania, where the ionosphere is relatively transparent to such radiation. Reber was the second astronomer (after William Huggins) to be awarded the Bruce medal for work performed as an amateur. Reber remained a loner and essentially an amateur all his life. For his unconventional views on cosmology see his paper, “A Timeless, Boundless Equilibrium Universe.

Presentation of Bruce medal

Nicholson, Seth B., PASP 74, 183-86 (1962).

Other awards

American Astronomical Society, Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, 1962.
Franklin Institute, Elliot Cresson medal, 1963.
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Jansky Prize, 1975.
Royal Astronomical Society, Jackson-Gwilt Medal, 1983, presented by M.J. Rycroft, Observatory 103, 226-27 (1983).

Biographical materials

Bitterman, Jay, Lake County Astronomical Society
Bouton, Ellen N. with Kenneth I. Kellermann, in Finding Aid to the Papers of Grote Reber, 1923-1999.
Dickey, John, The Father of Radio Astronomy: A Tour of the Grote Reber Museum in Tasmania
Dieckhoff, Kerby, Grote Reber: Radio Engineer and Physicist.
Feldman, Paul A., “Grote Reber: Yesterday and Today,” Sky & Telescope 76, 1, 31 (July 1988).
Ghigo, F., Grote Reber and His Radio Telescope
Kellermann, K.I., “Grote Reber (1911-2002): A Radio Astronomy Pioneer,” in Wayne Orchiston, ed., The New Astronomy: Opening the Electromagnetic Window and Expanding Our View of Planet Earth, (Springer, Dordrecht, 2005), pp. 43-70.
Kraus, J. D., “Grote Reber, Founder of Radio Astronomy,” JRASC 82, 3, 107-114 (1988).
Reber, Grote, “A Play Entitled the Beginning of Radio Astronomy,” JRASC 82, 3, 93-106 (1988).
Weisstein, Eric, Treasure Trove of Scientific Biography

Bibliography

Papers, etc.

Many of Reber’s papers are at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. An extensive finding aid is available online. There is an oral history interview at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives.

Other References: Historical

Chapman, David M.F., “The First Radio Telescope Turns 60,” JRASC 91, 163 (1997).

Finley, Dave, Early Radio Astronomy: The Ham Radio Connection
https://www.qsl.net/n1irz/rahamhist.html

George, Martin, Wayne Orchiston, Bruce Slee, & Richard Wielebinski, “The History of Early Low Frequency Radio Astronomy in Australia. 2: Tasmania,” Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 18, 14–22 (2015).

George, Martin, Wayne Orchiston, Bruce Slee, & Richard Wielebinski, “The History of Early Low Frequency Radio Astronomy in Australia. 3: Ellis, Reber and the Cambridge Field Station Near Hobart,” Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 18, 177-89 (2015).

George, Martin, Wayne Orchiston, Bruce Slee, & Richard Wielebinski, “The History of Early Low Frequency Radio Astronomy in Australia. 5: Reber and the Kempton Field Station in Tasmania,” Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage 18, 312-24 (2015).

Good, Gregory A., ed., The Earth, the Heavens and the Carnegie Institution of Washington. History of Geophysics series, vol. 5 (American Geophysical Unon, 1993).

Higgins, W. Skeffington, Grote Reber and the Wheaton What-Is-It, Now Seen from the Air
http://beamjockey.livejournal.com/155909.html.

Holmes, Bob, “Rebel with a Cause,” New Scientist 144, 53 (29 Oct 1994) [preview].

Kraus, John Daniel, Big Ear (Cygnus-Quasar Books, Powell, OH, 1976).

Lovell, Bernard, Astronomer by Chance, (Basic Books, 1990).

Luty, J., “Reber-Radio’s First Practitioner,” Astronomy Now 7, 4, 42-43 (Apr 1993).

Reber, Grote, “Early Radio Astronomy at Wheaton, Illinois,” Proc. of the Institute of Radio Engineers 46, 15-23 (1958) [reprinted with editorial remarks and illustrations added in Sullivan, III, W. T.,ed., The Early Years of Radio Astronomy: Reflections Fifty Years after Jansky’s Discovery (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984), pp. 43-66 and also in N. Kassim, M. Perez, M. Junor, and P. Henning, eds., From Clark Lake to the Long Wavelength Array: Bill Erickson's Radio Science ASP Conference Series, Vol. 345, Proceedings of the Conference held 8-11 September, 2004 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA (Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco. 2006), pp. 16-24].

Reber, Grote, “Radio Astronomy Between Jansky and Reber,” in Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy, ed. by K. Kellerman & B. Sheets (NRAO, 1984), pp. 71-78.

Reber, Grote, “A Play Entitled the Beginning of Radio Astronomy,” JRASC 82, 93-106 (1988).

Reber, Grote, on his decision to build a dish [wav]
courtesy NRAO/AUI Archives.

Shull, J. M., “Grote Reber at Boulder, Colorado,” Sky & Telescope 76, 598 (1988).

Spradley, Joseph L., “The First True Radio Telescope,” Sky & Telescope 76, 1, 28 (1988).

*Sullivan III, W. T., Classics in Radio Astronomy (D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1982).

Sullivan III, Woodruff T., Cosmic Noise: A History of Early Radio Astronomy (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2009). [review]

Wearner, Robert, “The Birth of Radio Astronomy,” Astronomy 20, 6, 46 (1992).

Westerhout, Gart, “The Early History of Radio Astronomy,” Annals NY Acad Sci 198, 211-218 (1972).

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Other References: Scientific

Grote Reber bibliography
http://www.nrao.edu/whatisra/hist_reber.shtml#gpub

Stevens-Rayburn, Sarah, The History of Radio Astronomy: A Bibliography 1898-1983
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Rayburn/frames.html

Reber, Grote, “Cosmic Static,” Proc. of the Institute of Radio Engineers 28, 68-70 (1940).

Reber, Grote, “Cosmic Static,” Ap.J. 91, 621-24 (1940) [reprinted, with commentary in Lang, Kenneth R. & Owen Gingerich, eds., A Source Book in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 1900-1975 (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1979)], pp. 30-35.

Reber, Grote, “Cosmic Static,” Proc. of the Institute of Radio Engineers 30, 367-78 (1942).

Reber, Grote “Cosmic Static,” Ap.J. 100, 279-87 (1944) [reprinted in the centennial edition Ap.J. 525C, 362 (1999) with a modern commentary by K.I. Kellermann]

Reber, Grote “Solar Radiation at 480 Mc.sec,” Nature 158, 945 (1946).

Reber, Grote, “Antenna Focal Devices for Parabolic Mirrors,” Proc. of the Institute of Radio Engineers 35, 731-34 (1947).

Reber, Grote & Jesse L. Greenstein, “Radio-Frequency Investigations of Astronomical Interest,” Observatory 67, 15-26 (1947).

Reber, Grote, “Solar Intensity at 480 Mc,” Proc. of the Institute of Radio Engineers 36, 88 (1948).

Reber, G., “Cosmic Static,” Proc. of the Institute of Radio Engineers 36, 1215-18 (1948) [reprinted in *].

Reber, Grote, “Cosmic Radio Noise,” Radio Electronic Engineering Education 11, 3-5, 29 (1948).

Reber, Grote, “Motion in the Solar Atmosphere as Deduced from Radio Measurements ,” Science 113, 312-14 (1951).

Reber, Grote, “Spread F Over Hawaii,” J. Geophys. Res. 59, 257–265 (1954).

Reber, Grote, “Radio Astronomy in Hawaii,” Nature 175, 78-79 (1955).

Reber, Grote, “Fine Structure of Solar Radio Transients,” Nature 175, 132 (1955).

Reber, Grote & G.R. Ellis, “Cosmic Radio-Frequency Radiation Near One Megacycle,” J. Geophys. Res. 61, 1-10 (1956).

Reber, Grote, “World-Wide Spread F,” J. Geophys. Res. 61, 1157-64 (1956).

Reber, Grote, “Radio Interferometry at Three Kilometers Altitude above the Pacific Ocean. Part I, Installation and Ionosphere,” J. Geophys. Res. 64, 287-93 (1959).

Reber, Grote, “Radio Interferometry at Three Kilometers Altitude above the Pacific Ocean. Part II: Celestial Sources,” J. Geophys. Res. 64, 293-303 (1959).

Reber, Grote, “Hectometer Cosmic Static,” IEEE Transactions on Military Electronics 8, 257-63 (1964).

Reber, Grote, “Ground-Based Astronomy: The NAS 10-Year Program,” Science 152, 150-51 (1966).

Reber, G., “Cosmic Static at 144 Meters Wavelength,” Journal Franklin Institute 285, 1-12 (1968).

Chu, William T., Young S. Kim, & Grote Reber, “Cosmic Ray Muons from Low Galactic Latitude,” PASP 82, 339-44 (1970).

Reber, Grote, “A Timeless, Boundless, Equilibrium Universe,” Proc. Astr. Soc. Australia 4, 482-83 (1982).

Reber, Grote, “Intergalactic Plasma,” IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science PS-14, 678-82 (1986) [abstract].

Ellis, G.R.A., et al, “Radioastronomy through an artificial ionospheric window: Spacelab 2 observations,” Advances in Space Research 8, 63-66 (1988).

Reber, Grote, “Hectometer Radio Astronomy,” JRASC 88, 297-302 (1994).

Marmet, Paul & Grote Reber, “Cosmic Matter and the Nonexpanding Universe,” IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science 17, 264-69 (1989).

Reber, Grote & Michael Street, “Hectometer and Kilometer Wavelength Radio Astronomy,” in Namir E. Kassim & Kurt W. Weiler, eds., Lecture Notes in Physics, Low Frequency Astrophysics from Space, Proceedings of an International Workshop, Crystal City, VA, Jan. 8-9, 1990 (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1990), pp. 42-45.

Reber, Grote, “Hectometer Radio Astronomy,” JRASC 88, 297-302 (1994).

Reber, Grote, “Intergalactic Plasma,” Astrophysics & Space Sci. 227, 93 (1995).

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