15 Aug 2020

Arecibo dish disaster

Earlier, I read that one of the supports holding the large Arecibo dish in the Caribbean had broken. The main use of this 50 year dish radio telescope was for research by the University of Florida. Until this dish is repaired (no mean task) no work can carry on.

Back in the 1960s, this dish was used for amateur 70cm EME tests. Because of its huge size, it allowed access to EME QSOs not possible at the time with more modest stations. It appeared on the cover of the RSGB Bulletin. I think this was 1965.

See https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/08/arecibo-radio-telescope-goes-dark-after-snapped-cable-shreds-dish

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