Recibidos en Arecibo (Received in Arecibo)

People are often surprised to learn I’m Puerto Rican, especially when they’ve only seen my name or picture. But I was indeed born and raised on the tropical island, enjoying every moment until my family and I moved away about 16 years ago. I’d never actually gone back until last month (along with my wife, who’d never seen the island), capping off my series of work-related trips with an actual vacation — and explaining my shameful absence from this blog.

Despite an abiding love of astronomy and all things space, I never managed to visit the world-famous Arecibo Observatory when I lived in Puerto Rico, so it became my first destination on this return trip. I would’ve been happy just gazing at (and taking pictures of) the distinct radio telescope, the largest single-aperture telescope ever built. If you’ve ever seen Contact or GoldenEye, you’ve seen the giant dish seemingly buried among the tress (but actually suspended above the ground), and the huge platform that houses the receiver and transmitter about 500 feet (150 meters) above the dish.

Enterprising journalist that I am (or, at least, sometimes turn out to be), I managed to meet up with Observatory Director Mike Nolan, who actually took us up to the platform itself. The first thing that struck me was the tremendous height. Sure, 500 feet sounds like a lot, but I didn’t realize just how much until we piled into a tiny tram and rode up a thin cable to the platform, swaying in the breeze. Mike led the way on the platform, casually walking, maneuvering, and climbing over areas that gave my wife and I pause. (And we’re not novices when it comes to heights; both of us partook in the common MIT pastime of scaling tall buildings and traversing rooftops while evading campus police. Arecibo was much scarier.)

The second thing that struck me was just how much work it took to get around. These scientists have to take the harrowing trip up to the platform and climb various ladder-ish objects at least twice a day. After seeing everything, we were both out of breath and sore all over, while Mike waited patiently ahead, not a bit worn out. Clearly, the old stereotype of the weak and wimpy scientist didn’t hold true at Arecibo.

On our tour, we saw the moving mechanisms for the receiver (necessary with a stationary dish), the cooling room for the different equipment, and even the various detectors themselves. They came in a range of shapes and sizes, corresponding to the different types of radio waves the observatory can look for. When Mike was busy, Ellen Howell stepped in, explaining to us the research going on in the control room and generally talking about the state of the observatory. The extreme heat apparently causes regular power outages, which are not only annoying but also cost the scientists valuable time. It takes a while for the systems to get ready, so if the power goes out just before an observation session (as it did while we were there, alas), it can deeply reduce or even eliminate the data the telescope can get.

Plus, the current economic crisis has tipped the financial scales — already balanced against Arecibo — even further into the scary zone. There’s a chance the observatory might have to shut down soon, though everyone I saw seemed not too worried; either they’re hopeful that someone with a say in the U.S. Congress (which rules out any Puerto Ricans) will fight to keep the observatory going, or they’ve just gotten used to the worries. If it were up to the natives, there wouldn’t be such problems because they’re almost uniformly supportive of the observatory. We can do our part from the states by contacting our various representatives and senators in Congress and generally keeping up an interest in this world-class scientific site located on our soil.

We went on some other astronomy-related trips while visiting my homeland, probably inspiring another blog post soon, but, I wanted to make sure I covered Arecibo before anything else. Many thanks to Mike and Ellen, who went out of their way to show us around and make us feel welcome in the midst of much science. 

Have any Arecibo stories of your own? Still can’t believe I’m actually Puerto Rican? Feel free to leave stories and questions in the comments.