
Voyager antenna operator: 'I was the first human to see images from Neptune' - Angostura
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/08/21/voyager_2_40th_anniversary_meet_richard_stephenson_radio_operator/
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canada_dry
> Canberra's amplifiers are already cryogenically cooled to 4.5° kelvin.

When my son and I toured Goldstone they showed us the equipment required to
amplify the signal from Voyager... explaining how the signal is roughly 1 atta
watt (1E-21)!!

The genius required to receive and process that is mind boggling.

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CamperBob2
FYI, Dave Jones of EEVBlog interviewed Stephenson at the Tidbinbilla antenna
site recently:

[https://www.eevblog.com/2017/04/19/how-to-contact-the-
voyage...](https://www.eevblog.com/2017/04/19/how-to-contact-the-
voyager-2-probe-part-1/)

Definitely worth watching for anyone who's into this stuff.

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watersb
So happy to see this.

The Very Large Array in southwest New Mexico was also upgraded for the Voyager
at Neptune campaign. The backup diesel generators are still very much
appreciated, although the Sun workstations were already yielding to Linux kit
when I showed up in 1999.

Here's to the telescope operators, they deserve more fame.

~~~
pkaye
What is Linux kit btw? Just some Linux workstations?

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MBCook
PBS will have a documentary about the Voyager spacecrafts on Wed at 9 EST
called The Farthest.

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rwmj
Oh good. It was jointly developed by the BBC so here's hoping they'll show it
in the Storyville documentary series one day.

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cyberferret
Initially I assumed this was the same facility as made famous by the move "The
Dish", but further reading seems to hint that _that_ particular dish is 300km
away - is that right?

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femto
There's a story there...

Yes, the antenna made famous by "The Dish", as the antenna that received the
first footsteps from the Moon is 300km away at Parkes. However, the movie took
some license with the truth so the antenna that actually received the first
footsteps and rightfully owns the fame was the Honeysuckle Creek antenna at
the then NASA tracking station: which was a few kilometres away from the
current Canberra Deep Space Tracking Complex at Tidbinbilla (the subject of
the article).

\---

Edit: The Honeysuckle Creek antenna was moved to Tidbinbilla, where it saw
further service and now remains as an historic landmark.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeysuckle_Creek_Tracking_Sta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honeysuckle_Creek_Tracking_Station)

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nthcolumn
Richard says: 'Not quite true, I was watching the RX strip chart during Triton
occultation and the first to observe the thin atmosphere (Rate of sig atten)'

