Introduction: What Is BigEar?

Welcome to the original website of the former Ohio State University Radio Observatory (OSURO), also known as Big Ear. The Observatory was a Kraus-type radio telescope, named for Dr. John D. Kraus, the founder and director of the observatory, who was also the designer and builder of the telescope. Big Ear covered an area larger than three football fields. The telescope was famous for discovering some of the most distant known objects in the universe, as well as for the "Wow!" Signal and the longest-running SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) project entered into the Guinness Book of Records. This unique probe of the depths of the cosmos was located in Delaware, Ohio (about 30 miles north of Columbus).

Big Ear Structures Comments About the Above Aerial Photograph of the Big Ear Radio Telescope

The various structures you see in the above aerial photo of Big Ear are each described in a separate section of this website. For proper viewing you will need to have a browser that is both JavaScript-enabled and can handle frames. To go there now, please click here.

BigEar Destroyed

In late 1997, after almost 40 years of operation, the Ohio State University Radio Observatory, with its "Big Ear" radio telescope, ceased operation. The land on which the observatory was sitting (owned by the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio) was sold by them in 1983 to land developers who later claimed their rights to develop the land. The telescope was destroyed in early 1998. An adjacent 9-hole golf course was expanded into 18 holes and about 400 homes were planned for construction on the nearby land owned by those developers. This website is meant to serve as a memorial to that unique radio telescope, to its designer and builder (the late Dr. John D. Kraus) and the many persons involved with the telescope, and to the discoveries made with that instrument.

Radio Observatory Continuing

As was noted above, the Big Ear radio telescope was demolished by land developers in 1998. The volunteers who had been operating Big Ear prior to its destruction stayed together as a group following Big Ear's demise (although with a continual evolution of some people leaving and others joining). This continuing group has been exploring new possibilities. One of these is the next generation radio telescope called "Argus", which has the ability to see in all directions at once. The group also formed an organization called "NAAPO" (North American AstroPhysical Observatory) for the purposes of developing Argus and other projects, and the raising of funds for those projects.