Stock Photo - Sep. 09, 1959 - Gigantic - Radio - Telescope being constructed for U.S. Navy: The World's largest Radio Telescope is under construction for the U.S. Navy near Sugar Grove, West Virginia. After scheduled completion in 1962, the 20,000-ton facility, to be known officially as Naval Radio Research Station, will give the United States the World's Most powerful 'Ear on the Universe'. It will enable Navy scientists to tune in on radio signals emitted by Astral bodies 19 times the distance probed by the 200-inch optical telescope at Mount Palomar, California, The instrument's aluminum-mesh reflector dish will have a 600-foot diameter, twice the length of a football field, and an area exceeding seven acres. Rotation of huge arcs supporting the dish complex will elevate the reflector at any angle above the Horizon. The entire structure will rotate on rollers riding circular tracks on the ground. Thus, the dish can be aimed at any point in the sky above the Horizon. The telescope will be electronically controlled from a nearby laboratory operations building. Contracting Agency is the Bureau of Yards and Docks acting for the Naval Research Laboratory, whose scientists formulated basic specifications and other criteria after years of intensive research. This artist's conception shows the World's largest Radio Telescope now being erected by the U.S. Navy on a 1,500 acre site near Sugar Grove, West Virginia. The 9,000,000 facility is being designed by Grad, Urbahn &Seelye, New York architects-engineers. The telescope's immensity may be gauged by comparison with drawn to scale people and vehicles in photograph. (Credit Image: © Keystone Press Agency/Keystone USA via ZUMAPRESS.com)