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Arecibo Observatory collapses


Ricordo
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On 12/2/2020 at 2:35 AM, Batesmotel said:

Come on James Webb!

A completely different kind of astronomy, but I agree with you 100 percent. The James Webb promises totally new possibilities, but not radio astronomy.

Edited by kerbie18
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9 hours ago, tadbart said:

Don't those *******s know anything about preventative maintenance???

 

I'm sorry, but the Saltwater Mexicans really aren't doing their part here lately.  Cut em loose or make em a state.

It has been one of those places that has to argue for every dollar they have in funding.   It's not been a high priority site for likely half of it's fifty years.     In addition, at 50 years old, they likely decided to drive it to the wheels feel off and reinvest some place else...if someone has the courage to do it.

I think Trump would have.  In his second term I think he would have given us a chance to expand greatly our presence in space sciences.

As for not doing their part?  Look to DC for that.  This was American property.  Run by the US not the locals.

Edited by Historian
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20 minutes ago, Historian said:

I saw that this AM.  One hell of a disaster.   So glad no one was hurt.

Time to build a new one. Bigger than China's.

Wasn't Arecibo the one that got volunteers to sign up to crunch data for them back years ago ?  They would send you data packets and your computer would process them when it wasn't busy?

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2 minutes ago, pipedreams said:

Wasn't Arecibo the one that got volunteers to sign up to crunch data for them back years ago ?  They would send you data packets and your computer would process them when it wasn't busy?

Ayep.  I was one of them.  Looked cool on a monitor but i wonder how much of anything useful came out of this.

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9 minutes ago, Historian said:

Ayep.  I was one of them.  Looked cool on a monitor but i wonder how much of anything useful came out of this.

I had forgot about that until this crash happened.  I was another one that participated for a long time.  True we will never know if it was useful.

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Just now, pipedreams said:

I had forgot about that until this crash happened.  I was another one that participated for a long time.  True we will never know if it was useful.

I'm sure it was very useful.  The problem is we were looking for a needle in a haystack the size of the universe.  The chances that anyone of us an individual would get the right data to crunch....well...i have a better chance of winning the lotto. regrowing the hair I've lost of the years and be seen driving around town in a Porche convertible with my topless red-headed super model girlfriend.

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The US had their own failure in 1988. A 300 foot telescope at NRAO, Green Bank, WV collapsed.

 

300ft-before.gif

 

image.jpeg.c5e01f8431095b0c6ecb9c51fae2feda.jpeg

 

If you are ever in the area of south WV, stop by and tour the area.  The Greenbriar Hotel @ White Sulpher Springs housed a secret bunker for the Congress in case of nuclear attack. It was a closely held secret for a while, but when word got out they closed it down. 

 

My wife surprised me on one birthday with a weekend there. We did the tour thing of the bunker and the NRAO ( National Radio Astronomy Observatory ) 

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3 hours ago, willie-pete said:

The US had their own failure in 1988. A 300 foot telescope at NRAO, Green Bank, WV collapsed.

 

300ft-before.gif

 

image.jpeg.c5e01f8431095b0c6ecb9c51fae2feda.jpeg

 

If you are ever in the area of south WV, stop by and tour the area.  The Greenbriar Hotel @ White Sulpher Springs housed a secret bunker for the Congress in case of nuclear attack. It was a closely held secret for a while, but when word got out they closed it down. 

 

My wife surprised me on one birthday with a weekend there. We did the tour thing of the bunker and the NRAO ( National Radio Astronomy Observatory ) 

I think Arecibo was ours too.  Puerto Rico is a protectorate and I believe the National Science Foundation paid for it.

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7 hours ago, Walt Longmire said:

Looks like a supporting cable snapped at the beginning. I wonder if they ever replaced them.

"Its auxiliary support cables had snapped in August and November, before the final, catastrophic structural failure on Tuesday, when the cables connecting the hanging platform also gave way, pulling down the tops of nearby supporting towers.

Engineers involved in the deconstruction plans were conducting a remote risk assessment, and inspecting the supporting cables using a drone, at the time of the collapse.

No one had been allowed to approach the structure since mid-November due to the unknown timeline of the impending doom. There were no injuries sustained in the collapse as a result of these precautions. "

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3 hours ago, RenoF250 said:

I think Arecibo was ours too.  Puerto Rico is a protectorate and I believe the National Science Foundation paid for it.

It was paid for by the NSF and Peurto Rico was chosen because of it being an American territory and  located far away from polar radiation.  Radio does weird things up north.

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On 12/4/2020 at 8:28 PM, DWARREN123 said:

Just got too old and not as effective any more.

The newer ones are smaller farm types and more efficient.

No other radio telescope facility provides radar imaging of planets in our solar system and near earth asteroids.

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On 12/4/2020 at 11:30 PM, willie-pete said:

The US had their own failure in 1988. A 300 foot telescope at NRAO, Green Bank, WV collapsed.

 

300ft-before.gif

 

image.jpeg.c5e01f8431095b0c6ecb9c51fae2feda.jpeg

 

If you are ever in the area of south WV, stop by and tour the area.  The Greenbriar Hotel @ White Sulpher Springs housed a secret bunker for the Congress in case of nuclear attack. It was a closely held secret for a while, but when word got out they closed it down. 

 

My wife surprised me on one birthday with a weekend there. We did the tour thing of the bunker and the NRAO ( National Radio Astronomy Observatory ) 

Depending on the time of year, you could also have enjoyed a logging train ride up into the mountains at Cass, which is just a few miles up the road from NRAO. 

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29 minutes ago, railfancwb said:

Depending on the time of year, you could also have enjoyed a logging train ride up into the mountains at Cass, which is just a few miles up the road from NRAO. 

Yes, my wife and I rode on that also. It was all foggy up on the mountain, so the view wasn't all that great, but my first time on a geared locomotive.

 

image.jpeg.d9839957ca9b6257d886c8ebed630f75.jpeg

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