The Arecibo Observatory (NAIC)

Well, there's not much on this page yet, but that will change soon. I might as well tell you the basics. This is a radio telescope, pictured in a "swivel" camera view below (click to download). It is the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world, so it has, of course, the largest radio dish in the world. It has a diameter of 1,000 feet (350 meters). The antenna platform (or known to Goldeneye players as the antenna cradle) weighs about 700 tons. It has a rotating arm, which can rotate the two antennas on the bottom, so that they will receive radio waves from different loactions. On the bottom of the rotating arm, where the antennas are suspended, is another track on which the two antennas can be moved outward or inward, in respect to the center. This telescope is capable of detecting radio sources, scanning for radio signals in space, upper atmospheric studies, and radar mapping of other planets, moons, and stars. There is a 1 out of 50, to put it in a nice way, chance, but still a chance indeed, that I'll be able to go to the Arecibo Observatory for my senior project (which means I would go in summer '03). Anyway, below are some neat virtual reality-like photos of the observatory, both of which were taken from the antenna platform (one on top, and one on the rotating arm). You will need QuickTime Player to view these pictures. You can e-mail me by clicking HERE if you don't have Quick Time, and then I'll e-mail you back with screen shots of all the positions in the file.

Right click on the images and click "save as" to save these to your hard drive and view them