Karl Jansky and Grote Reber started it all in the 1930s, and after WWII, discoveries and recognitions followed, highlighted by Nobel Prizes awarded to eight different radio astronomers. However, radio astronomy was the first of the new astronomies and captured most of the new discoveries. Today, astronomers study the infrared, ultraviolet, X-ray, and gamma-ray portions of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as radio and optical observations, and are beginning to explore the non-electromagnetic Universe of gravity wave and neutrino astronomy. Radio astronomy provided the first observations of the cosmos outside the traditional narrow optical window characteristic of all previous astronomical studies extending over many millennia. NRAO users often no longer participated in the observing, and with the start of ALMA observations in 2011, often did not even participate in the planning of the observations or the reduction of data. By the turn of the century, the traditional breed of radio astronomers was disappearing. As radio telescopes became more sophisticated and computer-aided, observations and reduction became more automated radio astronomers evolved from experimenters to observers to data analysts. However, by the beginning of the twenty-first century NRAO was operating the most powerful radio telescopes in the world, the VLA, the VLBA, and the GBT, and had become the acknowledged leader in the evolution of radio astronomy from a technique to an astronomical-based science. But the Green Bank Telescope project was funded before the design was complete and was prematurely rushed into construction with unfortunate consequences to the cost and schedule. The VLA and VLBA were built on schedule and on budget. Following the inauspicious experience with the 140 Foot Telescope, NRAO apparently learned to manage big projects.
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