• antenna a riflettore
• Arecibo
• Jodrell Bank
• Medicina
• radiotelescopio

The aim of this dissertation consists of analysing the application of large reflector antennas in radio astronomy. The initial part of the dissertation is devoted to an overall description of the reflector antennas and, in particular, to the optic schemes adopted in the practical applications. Then, we give an overall description of a radio telescope, including a large radio antenna and a sensitive broadband radio receiver that is projected to measure the noise. Moreover, we take into account the better characteristics of a radio telescope, such as the sensitivity and the resolving power. Therefore, we analyse the particularities of building and working of the largest radio telescopes of the world, shedding light on the building and project differences adopted. We illustrate the very long baseline interferometer techniques (VLBI and VSOP) that are adopted to simulate the antennas of large diameter that is comparable to the Earth’s one and also more. We describe briefly some outcomes obtained by the adoption of large antennas of radio telescopes not only in the study of heavenly bodies but also in the applications of geodynamics. We conclude with a short comparison with the network of the American radio telescopes (VLA) and with the telescopes of recent and future realisation.