Letter to National Park Service re Bell Labs Horn Antenna Preservation

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Thanks to Arthur Haspoja's note in the "Letters" feature of the October 2010 "Sky & Telescope," I learned that the National Park Service is allowing the Horn Antenna to deteriorate at its home on the old Bell Labs grounds (now owned by Lucent). It was famously used by Drs. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson to serendipitously discover the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize.

Below is the letter I wrote to request that action be taken to preserve this important part of science history. Please consider sending a letter of your own.

To: Mr. Edson Beall, edson_beall@nps.gov

November 18, 2010

Greetings Mr. Beall:

I recently read a letter in "Sky & Telescope," written by a fellow amateur astronomer (Arthur Haspoja) who visited the Horn Antenna located at the old Bell Labs site in Holmdel, NJ. He found it to be in a pathetic state of disrepair. It would be a shame to let such an important part of science history decompose into a rusted heap of metal.

With all the taxpayer's money being spent to wasteful ends (bridges to nowhere, et al), it is not unreasonable to expect that the Horn Antenna at least be given a fresh coat of paint on occasion.

Your effort to arrange for a proper schedule of maintenance for the Horn Antenna would be greatly appreciated. If you will let me know when the project is complete, I will be glad to publicize it on my engineering website, RFCafe.com (typically 7,000-8,000 visitors per day).

Thank-you very much.

For more information and a lot of detailed pictures of the dilapidated condition of the Holmdel horn antenna, please visit the Fort Bend Astronomy Club's website. A thumbnail of one of the photos is shown at the right.

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