Arecibo is kaput

[Ralph Jones]

The 305-meter radiotelescope at Arecibo PR, damaged by two cable failures, has been judged unsafe to repair and will be blown up. https://spacenews.com/nsf-to-decommi...dio-telescope/

[Ray Tackett]

Another article with some additional information.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/11/famed-arecibo-observatory-to-be-decommissioned-in-wake-of-cable-breaks/

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

That's the end of an era. It was great fun to visit.

[Russell Holton]

Sad. I keep trying to think of ways of gently lowering the platform, but I'm sure they've looked at all of them. (Such as just winching the whole thing down.) It does raise a question of how they got it up there in the first place.

The real end was the lack of funding as it appears that other technologies have taken over - at least for the better funded research.

[Tom Charlton]

That's the end of an era. It was great fun to visit.

Hi Scott,
Best I recall t’was back about 1980 or so, Spent a month flying all over the island doing aerial mapping with a Cessna 411. Just had to see the antenna so flew over and circled it couple’a turns. Hope I didn’t mess up any science<grin>.
My understanding is Arecibo has been on shaky financial grounds for a while. Sad deal.

Regards,
Tom Charlton (The truth is out there!)

[Dave Siciliano]

Where is Jody Foster when you need her (;
sad to hear.

[Reams Goodloe]

The eye is no longer golden....

- Reams

[Terry Carraway]

I wonder what this will do to SETI@Home?

They had their receiver on an arm of the platform. Lots of room for piggy back receivers. The new technologies are dedicated to the task at hand, AFAIK.

[Ralph Jones]

...and it collapsed this morning. https://phys.org/news/2020-12-huge-p...telescope.html

[Russell Holton]

Now that it's been rendered reasonably safe, I wonder what the extent of the damage to the expensive stuff is. Perhaps enough can be salvaged to rebuild at an acceptable cost.

[Jeff Hartmann]

Venue for next year's Skateboard championships....

[Ray Tackett]

Validates the decision not to try to repair. Shame, though.

[Russell Holton]

Photos accessible on the NPR site: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/01/94076...class-research

Looks like something happened that took off the tops of all the towers.

If the will is there, the dish might be salvageable. I wonder with advances in technology, a lighter replacement could be built for a reasonable cost. At 57 years old, that seems to put it in the vacuum tube era.

[Ralph Jones]

that seems to put it in the vacuum tube era.

Hey, don't knock it. You could test your tubes at Seven-Eleven.

[Scott Dyer HPN/NY]

Hey, don't knock it. You could test your tubes at Seven-Eleven.

I did mine at the drug store...