Arecibo Observatory

Marty took a break from making Lola's new tables and we went to the obsevatory at Arecibo, an hour or so east of here.

The observatory has the largest radio telescope in the world. It has been featured in major motion pictures including Contact with Jodi Foster and the Bond flick, Goldeneye with Pierce Brosnon.

It is difficult to get a sense of how big this thing is. The main reflector - the "bowl" - is 305 meters (1000 feet) in diameter. It is 51 meters (167 feet deep) and covers an area of about 18 acres, more than 26 football fields. The Georgian dome - that bell-like thing hanging from the suspended platform - is six stories high and weighs 68 metric tons (150,000 pounds). The platform itself weighs 630 metric tons and is held up by 18 cables suspended from reinforced concrete towers. It's so sell balanced, under normal wind conditions the platform moves only a fraction of a centimeter. It is awesome!

There are more pictures on Flickr.

The drive back into the observatory is pretty awesome in and of itself. This was one of our few (so far!) excursions into the interior of the island. Once you leave the autopista (expressway), the roads are typically narrow and wind around and over and up and down the mountains. It's a beautiful, really interesting drive. At times the heavy vegetation hangs over the road so you're driving through a living tunnel. Other places the vista opens and you can see across several mountain tops and down into the valleys between them. Carr. 10 (Route 10) the major north-south road across the center of the island, reminded us of the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Smokey Mountains. Just beautiful.

We'll be taking more trips to the interior soon!