Gallery: Earth's Giant Ear Marks 50 Years of Listening for Signals From the Cosmos
01IMG-3590
*The Arecibo Observatory's radio telescope is the largest single dish in the world. Here, the platform above the dish is illuminated by the afternoon light. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)*
02artist conception of telescope-1959
*An early artist's conception of the telescope. The shape of the dish is the same, but the tower system changed. (Photo courtesy of Arecibo Observatory)*
03slide077
*An early photo of the observatory site. Two towers are built, and the sinkhole is being sculpted to hold the spherical dish. (Photo courtesy of Arecibo Observatory)*
04mar16-1963
*Workers installing the original dish surface. The entire reflector is suspended from cables anchored to the sinkhole walls. The first surface was made from coarse mesh; in 1974, it was upgraded to a perforated aluminum surface. (Photo courtesy of Arecibo Observatory)*
051974-1
*A 1974 view of the original dish, before resurfacing began. You can see through the dish to the spiraling road beneath. (Photo courtesy of Arecibo Observatory)*
06control room
*The same linoleum floor still runs through much of the control room. (Image courtesy of Arecibo Observatory)*
07cables
*Bravery in the early days. Here, workers are installing a radio feed on one of the cables connecting the platform to the towers. It's being used to observe a pulsar. (Photo courtesy of Frank Drake)*
08menondish-74
*A 1974 photo of the dish resurfacing in progress. (Photo courtesy of Arecibo Observatory)*
091974 Feb-1
*An early photo from the telescope's platform. (Photo courtesy of Arecibo Observatory)*
10new-panels
*In 1974, the observatory upgraded the dish surface from coarse mesh to perforated aluminum. Each panel (stacked) is the size of a large dinner table, and lets enough light through to allow vegetation to grow and prevent erosion. (Photo courtesy of Frank Drake)*
11high-aerial
*High aerial view of the Arecibo Observatory, showing the rough karst terrain in which it sits. (Photo courtesy of Arecibo Observatory)*
12IMG-3536
*The control panels for the observatory's transmitter looks like something out of Star Trek. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)*
13IMG-3648
*Looking down from the platform, which is 450 feet above the dish. Its exact altitude varies by about a foot as the temperature rises and falls. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)*
14IMG-3691
*You can phone home from the top of the platform. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)*
15IMG-3662
*Looking down at the platform and the rotating joint that lets the whole thing swivel. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)*
16IMG-3873
*Teams are installing transmitters at the telescope's base. These dipole antennas, each about 70 feet tall, will be used to heat the ionosphere above the site and study how plasma particles behave. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)*
17IMG-3778
*Only five people at a time are allowed on the catwalk. There's also a cable car that runs between the control room and the platform. Maximum capacity: Four people. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)*
18IMG-3811
*Beneath the dish it's shaded and cool, and home to an army of tiny frogs. It's quiet except for the sounds of machete-wielding staff trimming the vegetation, and another crew installing a transmitter at the dish's base. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)*
19IMG-3833
*A discarded pile of old line feeds rusts in the sinkhole beneath the dish. This is what it looks like inside one of them. (Nadia Drake/WIRED)*
