[Elecraft] Arecibo antenna collapses

[Frank Stein]

There is also the Square kilometer array radio telescope:
https://www.skatelescope.org/

It could be ready to operate before the decade is out and is even bigger.

- frank
W4TG

On Wed, Dec 2, 2020 at 7:03 PM Wes <wes_n7ws at triconet.org> wrote:

> Did they show you the transmitter?
>
> Wes  N7WS
>
>
> On 12/2/2020 10:22 AM, Andrew Faber via Elecraft wrote:
> > This is certainly getting way off topic on the Elecraft reflector, but I
> can’t resist mentioning that I have visited the FAST telescope in Guizhou
> Province.  Here is a brief explanation from my trip notes (we were guests
> because my wife is an astronomer with many Chinese colleagues).  It’s odd
> that they are creating a tourist destination, since normally such
> telescopes are located to minimize RFI.
> >
> > “We were met by a driver from FAST in a Honda Odyssey for the two-hour
> drive to Pingtang, China’s self-proclaimed “Astronomy City.”  There is a
> huge amount of new construction, as they try to take advantage of the FAST
> to create a tourist destination. There are new shops and hotels being
> built, and on the sides of the roads they even have statues and bas reliefs
> of famous scientists and scientific instruments.  FAST stands for “Five
> hundred meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope,” and that’s just what it
> is – outdoing the 300-meter radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico by
> far.  It’s in a valley that had a dozen or so homes before they houses were
> demolished.  It’s 500 meters across, and is partly steerable, since the
> panels can be somewhat deformed by 4,000 actuators pulling on cables that
> tug on the panels that comprise the reflective surface.  The receiving
> “cabin” is suspended on cables attached to six huge (maybe 350-400 feet
> tall) towers.  So by moving the cabin and pulling on cables, they can
> apparently track through about 20 degrees, unlike Arecibo, which is fixed
> in a spherical shape.  The actuators that deform the mirror into a parabola
> are hydraulic and need only pull about a foot and a half or so on each
> cable.  Although it was late, we drove down for a quick look at the
> telescope, since it wasn’t raining.  It’s an unbelievably impressive
> mechanical construct.
> >
> > 73, andy ae6y
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Elecraft at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to fstein at ieee.org