Featured Artifact of the Week

Astronomical Mirror

Piece of the original main reflector (mirror) from MIT’s Haystack Observatory on Westford’s Millstone Hill, which also includes corners of Tyngsborough and Groton. The mirror was used from 1964 to 2010. Construction of the observatory began in 1960, and it became operational in 1964. The observatory shares the hill as a part of MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory Space Surveillance Complex. The Northeast Radio Observatory Corporation (NEROC) is a consortium of universities, including MIT, that uses Haystack’s facilities.

Historically, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs also shared the hill. Lincoln Lab’s older Millstone Hill Radar successfully tracked Sputnik in 1957.

For more info see:
Lincoln Laboratory
Haystack Observatory

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From the Collection