Question: how long does it take to build radio telescopes?

Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 13 Jun 2011:

It depends on the radio telescope. Also, often it takes longer to design the telescope, than to actually put it together. For example, the telescope I built last year (LOFAR-Chilbolton, http://lofar-uk.org/) took about 6 months from the time that we dug up the first patch of soil, until the day that we switched it on and it started working. However, it is only one telescope of a large network of telescopes called the LOFAR International Telescope (http://lofar.org). Construction started on that in 2006 and we are still building it, concentrating on one site at a time. However, because it is being built in stages, it means that some parts of it can be used while the rest is being finished off. We’ll probably get it finished sometime around 2012 or 2013, although no doubt it will be added to and upgraded.