Arecibo Observatory

My memorable 1990 visit; memorable to me, not necessarily to anyone else!

This post was prompted by two factors: the catastrophic collapse of the 900 ton, suspended platform, on Dec 3, 2020; and finding the photos from my visit.

In August, 1990 I visited Andrea at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico where she had a summer fellowship. She was working on pulsars and this was the premier instrument in the world for finding and studying them.

This enormous instrument was completed in 1963, about the time I began graduate school in Rochester, New York. It was very relevant to my field of astrophysics. I heard about Arecibo this and Arecibo that throughout my 5 years in graduate school.

Two of the more notable speakers I remember at the Friday afternoon University of Rochester Physics Department Colloquia were Frank Drake, Director of the observatory, and Carl Sagan, well known popularizer of science. They were both professors at Cornell at the time, about 90 miles away from Rochester in Ithaca.

The telescope itself

I won’t be saying much about the telescope — there’s a lot out there available.

A radio telescope detects radio waves, not light rays as a “normal” telescope does. Radio waves are millions of times less energetic, and their wavelengths are millions of times longer. Many astronomical bodies emit radio waves.

It was big, very big: 1000 foot diameter reflector dish in a natural sinkhole. The world’s largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years (1963-2016), it comprised 39,000 perforated 3′ x 6′ panels — an area of about 20 acres (about 15 American football fields). It was a fixed, spherical (not parabolic) reflector. In collecting data from the source of interest, the receiver was moved, not the dish.

The current mechanical troubles began in August, 2020; an important cable broke in November; catastrophic cable failure in December. Consult internet for videos and other information. Sad.

The telescope, top to bottom:

  • triangular platform,
  • circular track,
  • 328 foot-long azimuth arm,
  • 1000 foot diameter reflector dish.

The snaky feature at upper left was a catwalk for humans servicing the telescope and for those wanting to save (or rule) the world.

The azimuth arm was 450 feet above the dish.

All the electronics and steel structures suspended over the dish were to get the detection point to the right place. I’m sure it was made as small and inconspicuous as possible because you really don’t want to block any more of the incoming radio waves than you have to. But you also want it to be rigid and stable and to ever so smoothly compensate for the rotating Earth as you collect data. The final design, all 900 tons of it, was approximately equivalent in weight to two, fully loaded, 747s. It was roughly the same size, too, depending on how you stack them.

The azimuth arm, the banana-shaped appendage hanging from the bottom of the triangular platform, was suspended on a circular track 450 feet above the dish and was 328 feet long. Various receivers (the Gregorian dome and that long pointy thing, e.g.) move along the track of the azimuth arm.

Thus, to point the telescope at your star or galaxy or pulsar you would rotate the azimuth arm around on its circular track and move the receiver along the azimuth arm until you were pointed correctly.

In the 1995 James Bond movie GoldenEye, Pierce Brosnan was shot at when he was running up the catwalk on his way to save the world. Also, before he could complete his mission the entire dish was blown up. It has since been fully repaired.

More details on the platform, the reflective dish, 747s, my favorite peanut butter cake recipe, pulsars, and the Gregorian dome available on request.

Photos, impressions, comments

Andrea mentioned the Gregorian dome during my visit, and said it generated a lot of anticipation among scientists. It became reality 6 years later.

All photos in this post, except the first two, are from my 35mm film camera. (I wouldn’t own a digital camera for 12 more years.) Andrea and Owen (former boyfriend) took a couple of the shots.

Finding the observatory at night at end of looooonngg day was a challenge. Puerto Rico is 4 timezones east, so I left Santa Barbara probably around 5:30am my time, and by the time I got anywhere near the observatory it was very late and very dark and my brain was mostly oatmeal. I wonder how many times I drove by this sign that night!

I found it easy to imagine this freeway sign modification was made by some mischievous graduate students.

The three of us were allowed to go out on the platform one day during during a maintenance period. Our little trip up the catwalk was peaceful, unlike James Bond’s.


I remember Owen asking me how could you let her do that? He meant the waving both arms while sitting on the railing stunt. (As if I had any control!)

View from under the reflective dish

Suspended platform as seen looking up from under the center of the reflective dish; partly through the small, permanent rectangular opening, partly right through the reflecting surface;

31 year-old tee shirt from gift shop; another pre-Gregorian dome relic

Fourteen and a half years after my Arecibo visit, in early 2005, I was visiting Andrea again, this time in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, when her twin girls were only a few months old. She’d been allocated some observation time on the Arecibo telescope that fell during my visit. She didn’t need to go to Puerto Rico — with appropriate passwords and software she could do it remotely from home.

I have photo in my deep archives of her, in her own house, controlling the movement of the 328 foot-long azimuth arm and data collection point along it, from her 5 or 10 pound laptop 1600 miles away, all while nursing one of the girls.

You should not be surprised to hear the photo will not be available on request.

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2019 Thanksgiving in Seattle

Alternative text

Tuesday, November 26 to Monday, December 2, 2019.

Clicking on an image will show it enlarged. Clicking on enlarged image will toggle caption on and off. All images have captions. (Well, I've tried to add a caption to every image.)

Literally at the beginning of our traveling, at 1:30 pm Tuesday as our plane takes off, I look over my right shoulder and see flames from the Cave fire!

Wednesday, November 27 — the day before Thanksgiving

The Cave fire is very much on our minds on our way down to breakfast. We need an update.

Thursday, November 28 — the day

Friday, November 29 — the day after

Traditions we’ve developed for the day after Thanksgiving in the last 5 or 10 years include: I meet my old friends Jean and Chuck for breakfast somewhere; the rest of the group goes to the Macy’s parade in downtown Seattle, freezes their respective butts off and begins recovery afterward at Top Pot donuts; Christmas decorations are put up (or at least started).

Met Jean & Chuck in the 1970s in Logan, Utah back when we were all Gentiles (i.e., non-Mormons).

Saturday, November 30

Sunday, December 1

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October 2019, Las Vegas

Sunday, October 27 to Wednesday, October 30, 2019

The usual Las Vegas trip: three nights, Chris gets to work, I get to do whatever I want.

Everybody does food photos now, no? So here’s mine: a photo of a jumbled counter at home reminding me of my breakfast the morning before the trip.

Elements of last breakfast before our flight

===== Sunday breakfast at home on 27th
peanut butter granola
oat crunch
last banana in house
last raspberries
last grapes
last kebab meat chunks from recent meal at Zaytoon restaurant
last chunk of tofu
last sweet pepper (orange)
coffee
soy milk
pills
dried plum, fig, date

In getting to the Santa Barbara Airport we cut our timing too close. United tells us to expect delay of almost an hour — and then takes it back! It’s not our fault we arrive later than we want.

Then when we finally arrive we find the nearby long-term lot is full!

But off-site lot #2 is only 4 min. away and the shuttle returns me to the ticket counters without any waiting, but still, this costs us about 15 minutes that we really aren’t sure we have. It’s not our fault! This is the same long-term lot I we used several times but years ago. I think the last time was before 9-11! Eighteen years ago! Do I have that right? (No, not the math! Whether it’s really that long ago since I used that lot.) Eventually our flight departs only 15 min late, and we’re on it. Phew!

We arrive in Las Vegas right on time. How are we gonna whine about that? Yeah, yeah, we see the big Welcome to Las Vegas mural and the slot machines that are tempting to many but I have to pee so stopping for even a minute to gamble is not one of my choices. (Best not to trifle with a 78-year-old prostate.) (Stopping to gamble would have been gambling squared!)

Then in Terminal 3 we find our ol’ bunny friend! The bunny’s location In Terminal 1 had been usurped a couple years ago by a Raiders team paraphernalia kiosk. What a good idea! I imagine someone with a vote in the matter must have mentioned the bunny isn’t generating much income.

Besides being adorable just because he’s a sweet little bunny, Chris and I used to find him very useful as a reference point: turn left at the bunny to get to the United Club; or Ruby’s Restaurant is down the hallway of Terminal 1 just past the bunny.

Groove vs. Rut distinction comes to mind for describing many routine activities during the rest of trip. A comfortable, efficient way of doing something might feel smooth and pleasant to one person but confining and in a rut to another.

Usual events on this trip, and candidates for being a groove or a rut:

LAX United Club;
Division of labor dealing with luggage getting on and off plane;
Renting car at Alamo: turn left as we walk in rental car facility, and bypass the jammed counter area because of our skip-the-counter-area printout;***
Leaving the facility for the routine drive to hotel, we know that of the three lanes leaving the facility I need to be in the middle lane and once I’m out on Gilespie I have half a block to get 3 more lanes left so I can turn left on Warm Springs.
Marty tells us our room number (#114 this trip) and because we have been here so many times we can then guess best place to park. (We’re correct!)
In our room we unpack efficiently (3 nights is worth unpacking for): no need to discuss side of bed, side of closet, whose drawers are whose; and, as usual, I go down to the front desk and request an additional set of towels and an additional bar of soap.
Take Chris to Biodermis in the morning without a word. Here, too, know proper lane to be in when ….
And from Biodermis back to hotel I know where to turn into the back driveway of that strip mall so I can get directly into the parking area at the back of the hotel, otherwise, half a block later, you can’t turn left where you expect to because ….
By now I’ve learned the back way (you know, the shortcut through that parking lot) from Biodermis to the nearest CVS.
In the hotel bistro that serves breakfast, Chris has made 2 friends of the women who work there, Elaine and Clancy; they seem delighted when they see her, and make a delight noise, and come out from behind the counter to give Chris a big hug; I got a couple hugs myself this trip;
For returning the car, we have another routine: fill up at Sunset and Sunset (that’s not a typo!) around 2pm on final day of trip; then an hour or two later on our way to the airport, we go down Green Valley Blvd to Warm Springs and then west to Gilespie; can finally turn left into the Rental Car Facility only after passing yellow curb and painted lines in center of road;

Yup, brings up the ‘ol Groove vs. Rut distinction some of us seem to like to ruminate on.

***Footnote or web note, whatever: Our grooveness and rutness was now considerably slowed by first the oldest and then the second oldest rental car employees in Nevada, first in finding a car, then in dealing with registering etc. so we could drive away. Yes, roll eyes, and maybe even shake head — whadaryagonnado.

For Sunday evening dinner Kim and Marty choose Great Greek rather than the customary Sammy’s. I’m flattered they choose, or even want, to spend as much time with us as they do. We’re familiar with Great Greek. It’s good, and it’s hardly a hardship, besides, Marty is paying.

Clips from bags of coffee make excellent cable ties; they work well and are very inconspicuous

Monday, crack of dawn, it’s time for Chris to begin slaving away, and unfortunately it’s time for me to do some slaving to set up her computer. We use the Biodermis monitor, keyboard, and mouse that live in the conference room that Chris takes over for her command center. The heavy, black, wire clips from my empty coffee bags turn out to be a hit and are barely visible in bundling her black cables.

It’s Sammy’s for Monday evening dinner. If we were in a rut, we would find this difficult because Sammy’s is for our day of arrival. We, however, adapt admirably.

During our meal Kim and Marty both take exception to the possible suggestion of a friend that I may not be doing much in my retirement. My friend had simply asked what I’d been doing those 11 or 12 years and I didn’t have a ready answer. Now, a couple years later, I appreciate the question and am working on a reply. Of course, the reply is mainly for me. Her question is a very useful reference but I’m still flattered Kim and Marty take exception.

Google might be misleading people? (This is my favorite sign of the trip!)

I’m slightly lost when I find this gate and sign blocking my way. I’m not looking for Ethel M Chocolates but I just want to … oohhhhh never mind. Takes me a few seconds to figure it out and I’ve been smiling about it since. My guess is the Ethel M chocolate company heard too many visitors grumbling about Google’s directions to their factory/showroom that they figured out the situation and paid for this sign to be added to the gate.

I was just now thinking, that because I’m retired and maybe bored out of my mind I’d ask Google for their suggestion of a route to get from Biodermis to Ethel M Chocolate. So I ask Google Maps for directions and sure enough, they suggest I go right through this gate.

Because I’m sooooo bored I then ask Google Earth for directions for walking, bicycling, and driving. Different routes are suggested but none suggested I go through this gate. Yay! for Google Earth.

Because I’m sooooo very very bored I asked Google Earth for the area of the dark rectangular area between the red and green dots on the sign. I happen to know it’s a huge solar array. Well, it’s my idea of a huge solar array. Ahhh, that’s why the controlled gate. Google Earth says the array is over 500 feet along the long side, and the total area is about 2.6 acres.

The biggest single event of my Tuesday is Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area. For being so large and close I’m surprised at how almost tricky it is to find. I wind up being so desperate I wind up using my phone’s map and GPS capabilities. I take the Petroglyph Trail, one of two trail choices, but I don’t make it to the petroglyphs. It’s a nice day for a hike: upper 60s °F, sunny, light breeze, no bugs, few hikers.

Tuesday evening at Kim & Marty’s:
Special dark beer appears that Marty bought with me in mind because he was sure I’d like it (he was right!): Great Basin Brewing Co. 412 Scytale Barrel-aged Imperial Stout; 13.1% alc/vol. Oldest brewery in Nevada established 1993? Prohibition ended in 1933 so what about those 60 years? No older breweries in Nevada than that?

From Wikipedia: The company was established in 1993 after Nevada brewers, including company founders Tom Young and Eric McClary, successfully lobbied the Nevada Legislature to allow for brewpubs in the state.[5]

OK, there was a law changed allowing brewpubs but what about breweries that made the stuff and sold it to distributors, bars, … ,? Yeah, but I ran out of steam on this question and didn’t pursue it. Oh well.

We end this post with a couple of gratuitous images of Hoover Dam and the nearby Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. The dam and bridge are 37 miles from Las Vegas so they’re close and I’ve visited couple of times but not this trip. I seem to need a fix of some sort every now and then. You may also remember that I’m bored out of my mind, and that I like Google Earth a lot.

One more final thing. How could I have almost forgotten? The nearly required safe-arrival-home photo. Yes, it’s actually the morning after but the light level and the photographer’s energy level are much better than right as we walk in the door at 12:30am when it’s dark and cold and really tired out.

The photo is taken pretty much at the crack of dawn if you didn’t get to bed until 1:30am the night before and were worn down by 3 days of slaving away at Biodermis.

The photo also features Chris’s two attack cats who are happy to see their mom is back. They’ve put aside their occasional petty differences and are doing their part to ensure her arrival is indeed safe.

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Chris’s Big Trip — Part 2

This post is my view of days 11-19 of Chris’s trip. The only photos taken during the trip that are in this post were texted to me at the time by Chris. There are thousands of photos taken during the trip they haven’t shown me yet.

Thu Oct 10
This is theIr 2nd day out from Toronto. We pick up the saga where the first post left off — just as our hardy crew is leaving Winnipeg, Manitoba.

That evening Chris and I have a brief, uncertain, call — cell coverage is spotty. I’m able to hear her tell me that it’s snowing, though!

Last 9 days of the trip

Fri 11th
C calls from somewhere near Saskatoon. We have an actual conversation! Nice!

Sat 12th
Edmonton Jasper Kamloops I don’t remember hearing a bit about any of these places even though I expected some of the best scenery of the entire trip here. Maybe someone will show me a photo or two before long.

Sun 13th Vancouver
This was the 5th day out from Toronto, and our intrepid crew finally gets hotel rooms for the night!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I pick up two library books for Chris and send her a photo of the books for verisimilitude (so she can see that I actually picked them up, didn’t just say I did). I’ve spared readers the photo of the two books. Pretty exciting photo, though. Chris is spared that photo, also, but not by choice! The system has decided somehow she’s unworthy and tells her the photo she’s been trying to download has expired because she dithered so long and now is deleted.

Mon 14th
Day spent around and about in Vancouver

I download a book sample to my Kindle app of Mary Elizabeth Williams’ account of her cancer. After the Dedication page, and author’s note comes this “Spoiler ” page, shown here. Got my attention.

Looks like an example of a very leaky magnet!

Tue 15th
To Seattle (0900-1245)

First thing for me, I notice small, dark puddle on the kitchen counter near the fridge. I delay my breakfast, figure it out, and restore the universe to its proper order. I am not pleased to begin my day this way. Culprit is a leaky old can of Coca Cola up in the most distant part of the cupboard above the refrigerator.

The rest of day for our travellers is spent around and about Seattle, including a visit to the Space Needle and then dinner at Michelle and Bobby’s house. I send her a photo of where I’ve hidden a house key, because in two days she’s likely to get home when no one’s there and would prefer not to wait for me.

Wed 16th
Depart Seattle on final leg of trip 0945 from King Street Station, a grand old station restored to its original 1906 self in 2013.

SEATTLE (AP) – April 2013 The historic waiting room at Seattle’s King Street rail station has been restored to look exactly as it did when it opened in 1906 with its ornamental plaster ceiling, Corinthian columns, mosaic floor tiles and a massive bronze chandelier.

Inigo and I go on great gopher hunt in the parlor of our house when our crew is near Klamath Falls, OR. Summary and spoiler here: we prevail, and, it wasn’t a gopher but a rat. More details forthcoming in a separate blog post.
Best line of the evening is Chris’s: But I bet Inigo enjoyed going on the hunt with his dad!

Thu 17th
Second and final day of Amtrak’s Coast Starlight Train down the U.S. west coast

They see a small brush fire right near the tracks near El Capitan Canyon when they’re so close to home. They can see flames, air tankers and fire-fighting helicopters. An alert arrives on C’s phone telling her to evacuate now! They would not have been surprised if their train was delayed (which it was not).

Arrival is right on time, 5:55pm, while I’m recording a Breast Cancer Resource Center panel presentation/discussion at the First Presbyterian Church on Constance.

Jim collects all the travelers and gets some nice arrival photos.

They go out to dinner.
Chris arrives home before I do and uses the hidden key. I arrive about half an hour later.

Chris is back!

<<<<< end of post

Chris’s Big Trip by Train

With Diane, Bonnie, and Wayne. Jim and I both stayed home, in case.

The group left Santa Barbara September 29, 2019, and will return October 17.

The Plan, plus notes on the first 11 days of the trip

Note to readers: Captions can be tricky. Anytime you see the first few words of a caption ending in an ellipsis ( … ) it means you’re not seeing the whole thing. You’ll be able to see the rest by just moving the cursor over the words you can see, without moving or clicking for about a second (I realize that’s too long for some of us, but that’s the way it is).

Maybe it’s only half a second.

In slideshow mode, entered by clicking on any image in a gallery or group, full captions are toggled on and off by simply clicking anywhere in the image.

Change trains in Los Angeles and head for Chicago.

After two days in a hotel in Chicago, it’s on to NYC

Now to Toronto and Vancouver

Two nights in NYC, then three in Toronto, makes five straight nights in hotels.

That’s the trip as of Wednesday, October 10. Well, on the 11th Chris actually called from somewhere near Saskatoon and we enjoyed an actual (private) conversation but no photos or written words.

Oh, one more thing, I cleaned up both kitty “accidents” about as soon as I took the photos, so you can stop worrying.

I’m posting this Sunday the 13th. They shoulda arrived in Vancouver at 8 this morning. I’d expect to hear from Chris soon.

End of post