Working model of one of the three steerable paraboloidal aerials of the Cambridge University 5000 feet radio telescope. On a board 28"x18"; diameter of bowl 23". The telescope, also known as the One Mile Telescope, used Earth-rotation aperture synthesis techniques developed by Martin Ryle.

Made in 1964, this is a model of one of the three radio dishes forming the 'One Mile Telescope' (OMT). Built at Lords Bridge near Cambridge in 1964, the three dishes form a radio interferometer with a baseline of around a mile. Signals collected by the three radio telescopes are combined using a technique called aperture synthesis. This gives a radio picture of the object being observed at a resolution that is equivalent to using a radio telescope one mile in diameter. Sir Martin Ryle a pioneer of radio astronomy developed the OMT and in 1957 established radio astronomy at Cambridge University. This telescope and other instruments now form the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory at Cambridge.