Cavendish Laboratory : An element of the 2C interferometer at the Rifle Range

Cavendish Laboratory

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Photograph of one of the four elements of the 2C interferometer at the Rifle Range. The four element interferometer carried out a survey of radio sources in the north sky in the period 1952 to 1955. The catalogue contained almost 2000 sources, but the survey suffered from the effects of 'confusion' which led to over-estimates of the flux densities of the sources. Many more faint sources were observed than expected, leading to the controversy between the steady state and evolutionary pictures of the Universe.</p>