Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association
The Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA) was a collaboration of the Universities of California, Illinois, and Maryland that built and operated the eponymously named BIMA radio telescope array.[1] Originally (1986) the premier imaging instrument in the world at millimeter wavelengths, the array was located at the UCB Hat Creek Observatory. In early 2005 nine of its ten antennas were moved to the Inyo Mountains and combined with antennas from the Caltech Owens Valley Radio Observatory and eight telescopes operating at a wavelength of 3.5 millimeters from the University of Chicago Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array (SZA), to form CARMA, the largest millimeter array in the world for radio astronomy at the time. CARMA was in turn decommissioned in 2015.
 Eight of the nine BIMA antennas (center) as now incorporated into the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy | |
| Alternative names | Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association  |
|---|---|
| Part of | Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy Hat Creek Radio Observatory |
| Location(s) | United States |
| Organization | University of California, Berkeley University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign University of Maryland |
| Wavelength | 100 GHz (3.0 mm) |
| First light | 1986 |
| Decommissioned | 2005 |
| Telescope style | research institute radio interferometer |
| Number of telescopes | 9 |
| Diameter | 6 m (19 ft 8 in) |
| Website | bima |
