Arecibo Observatory - an impressive sight

The Arecibo Observatory is simply impressive. It’s a 1000 foot (305 meter) telescope, the world’s largest single-aperture.  It contains the largest curved focusing dish on Earth, giving Arecibo the largest electromagnetic-wave-gathering capacity.

The dish surface is made of 38,778 perforated aluminum panels, each about 3 by 6 feet (1 by 2 m), supported by a mesh of steel cables.


It is used in three major areas of research: radio astronomy, atmospheric science, and radar astronomy.

The visitor center is separated into several areas: The Auditorium, Tools and Technology, The Earth and Solar System, and the Work at Arecibo.

The Tolld and Technology section includes an interactive model of the Arecibo radio telescope and a visual tour of the observatory. There were also some exhibits which provided hands-on experiences on the Doppler effect, light and color, the electromagnetic spectrum, and spectroscopy, the operation of the telescope, the optical laboratory and the HF facility.

The Earth and Solar System section has a lot of  basic information about the planets, the sun, asteroids and comets. It includes a meteorite collection, a planetary ornery, an aerial map of Puerto Rico, and the “Powers of Ten” video presentation.


While there you can have the chance of watching the dish move into positions which is very exciting.

For lunch time you can grab food near observatory and there is a nice place in the shade to eat and watch the scope.