A View From Underneath The Arecibo Observatory is a photograph by Sandra Pena de Ortiz which was uploaded on March 26th, 2013.
A View From Underneath The Arecibo Observatory
FEATURED PHOTO: ARTISTS NEWS DAILY FAA group - 03/27/2013... more
Title
A View From Underneath The Arecibo Observatory
Artist
Sandra Pena de Ortiz
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
FEATURED PHOTO: ARTISTS NEWS DAILY FAA group - 03/27/2013
FEATURED PHOTO: Comfortable Art FAA group - 03/27/2013
FEATURED PHOTO: Your Favorite Art Work FAA group - 03/27/2013
My son Gabriel, a freshman in the astrophysics program at Penn State, took this photograph during a one week field trip to the Arecibo Observatory with his research mentor, Dr. Alex Wolzsczan. The photograph was shot underneath reflector of the radio telescope through the only area were panels are not in place, allowing for a wonderful perspective and point of view of the reflector of the immense radio telescope, the largest in the world, located in the municipality of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The observatory is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC). It is operated by three entities, Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and Metropolitan University (UMET) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. A Cornell Professor called William E. Gordon is the author of the creation of the Observatory based on his interest in the study of the Ionosphere. Because of Dr. William Gordon persistence, the construction of the Observatory began in the Summer of 1960 and culminated in 1963, being actually named as the Arecibo Observatory: The William E. Gordon Telescope, this year celebrating its 50th anniversary.
As mentioned above, the Arecibo Radio Telescope, in Arecibo Puerto Rico, is the largest in the world. In fact, those who come to visit and see it for their first time are astounded by the enormousness of the reflecting surface, radio mirror, or the reflector, which is what is actually seen in the photograph. Because of the point of view from which the photograph was shot, viewers can appreciate how the upper surface of the reflector looks like (middle view), and also how the reflector looks from below (left and right sides). This huge "dish" is 305 m or 1000 feet in diameter, 167 feet deep, and covers an area of about twenty acres. The surface of the reflector dish is made of almost 40,000 perforated aluminum panels, seen in the photograph from above and from below. Importantly, the reflector of the Arecibo Radio Telescope is spherical, rather than parabolic.
Uploaded
March 26th, 2013
