Editing Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (section)

==History==
In 1973 [[Robert B. Leighton|Robert Leighton]] proposed to the [[National Science Foundation|NSF]] to build four 10.4 meter diameter parabolic dish radio antennas.   Three of these [[Leighton Radio Telescopes|Leighton antennas]] were to be used
as a mm-wave interferometer to be sited at [[Owens Valley Radio Observatory|OVRO]], and the fourth was to be used as a single submillimeter telescope at a high mountain site.  The proposal was approved (AST 73-04908<ref name=leighton/>), but the NSF insisted that the mm-wave array had to be completed before work on the submillimeter telescope could be started, which delayed the construction of the submillimeter telescope by almost a decade.   Mauna Kea was selected as the site for the submillimeter telescope, which became the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, after a site survey by [[Thomas G. Phillips]].<ref name=phillips/> The three antenna mm-wave interferometer at OVRO was eventually expanded to six elements, and ultimately became part of the [[Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy|CARMA]] array in California's [[Inyo Mountains]].

The CSO antenna, named the Leighton Telescope after the death of Robert Leighton in 1997, has a more precise surface than the CARMA array antennas, enabling it to make use of the superior Mauna Kea site by operating at higher frequencies.   Heating elements were also added to the stand-off pins which support the hexagonal panels, to allow active control of the surface.<ref name=Leong/>

Before being deployed to Hawaii, both the antenna (without its dish) and the dome building were assembled on the Caltech campus, at the current site of the [[Infrared Processing and Analysis Center|IPAC]] building, in order to ensure that the building and its shutter operated correctly.  Despite having assembled the building once on the Caltech campus, the construction contractor had difficulty re-assembling the building in the high altitude environment of Mauna Kea, and the contractor went bankrupt.   After the bankruptcy Caltech staff had to supervise completion of the observatory construction.