As the Vera Rubin Observatory team are commissioning their camera, the College of Letters and Science Magazine has a piece on its history, going all the way back to Distinguished Research Professor Tony Tyson's adolescence.
“ 'I was a very sick child and in a steam tent for a year,' said Tyson, who suffered from rheumatic fever at the time. 'My dad got me an old shortwave radio, and I put on headphones and dropped a wire out of the window. I could tune in the rest of the world.' ”
“That experience with shortwave radio spurred an interest in Tyson. Transmissions, invisible to the naked eye, were all around. He just needed to find a way to tune into them. By age 12, Tyson secured a ham radio license. As he sifted through the static, he connected with others from around the world. Years later, he applied this antenna-like attention to the stars.” More.
