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)*
