Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope The Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) is an aperture synthesis interferometer near World War II Nazi detention and transit camp Westerbork, north of the village of Westerbork, Midden-Drenthe, in the northeastern Netherlands. It consists of a linear array of 14 antennas with a diameter of 25 metres arranged on a 2.7 km East-West line. It has a similar arrangement to other radio telescopes such as the One-Mile Telescope, Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Ryle Telescope. Its Equatorial mount is what sets it apart from most other radio telescopes, most of which have an Altazimuth mount.
History of the telescope on September 17, its seventh known moon, Mimas. This telescope was world's largest telescope for over 50 years. However, this large scope was difficult to handle and thus less used than his favorite 18.7-inch reflector. In 1845 William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse built his Newtonian reflector called the "Leviathan of Parsonstown" with which he discovered the spiral form of galaxies. All of these larger reflectors suffered from the poor reflectivity and fast tarnishing nature of their speculum metal mirrors. This meant they need more than one mirror per telescope since mirrors had to be frequently removed and re-polished. This