Underside of a Radio Telescope Dish against a Gray Sky

Radio astronomy started by accident. In the early 1930s Karl Jansky, an engineer at Bell Labs, was hunting down the static that hissed on long-distance radio calls. One faint source rose and set with the stars. It turned out to be the center of the Milky Way. This dish is seen from below on a grassy rise, its white panels and lattice frame streaked with rust under a gray sky. Big counterweights hang off the mount in the radio telescope jigsaw puzzle.