While Michelle and Peggy stayed at the hotel, Sandy and I went to explore Arecibo and the universal truths, string theory and SETI. First, we saw a horse tied up on the highway.
-We saw this first thing, after the long and winding road, that they had a scale model of the solar system, which is hard to do because of the outer planets.
-Sandy's next to Tierra, or Earth. The sun is on the parking lot level.
-As we walked up we hit the other inner planets and then way up Jupiter. But what we were here for was the radio telescope.
-Arecibo has the largest in the world, the ear to the universe it's sometimes called. It's known as 'El Radar' in PR. It's a 20 acre dish set in a sinkhole. If you saw the movie Contact, you kind of know about this telescope (cool movie, by the way). It's discovered info on Mercury (hard planet to do so), got the first image of an asteroid and non-solar planets and works with the SETI program.
-The towers holding it all up took 60 hours of pouring concrete to construct. Slightly shorter than the Mackinac Bridge towers.
-On the fence where Sandy is, it had this plaque about the scale model of the solar system.
-This is Saturn and if you click on the picture, you can probably see Uranus on the pole. Mind-boggling.
-Very hilly, very picturesque, which made for a fun ride home (see youtube).
-But first some icy drink (pina colada, strawberry daquiri - non=alcoholic, of course).
-And saying goodbye to our lizard friend.
-Sandy's next to Tierra, or Earth. The sun is on the parking lot level. 
-As we walked up we hit the other inner planets and then way up Jupiter. But what we were here for was the radio telescope.
-Arecibo has the largest in the world, the ear to the universe it's sometimes called. It's known as 'El Radar' in PR. It's a 20 acre dish set in a sinkhole. If you saw the movie Contact, you kind of know about this telescope (cool movie, by the way). It's discovered info on Mercury (hard planet to do so), got the first image of an asteroid and non-solar planets and works with the SETI program.
-The towers holding it all up took 60 hours of pouring concrete to construct. Slightly shorter than the Mackinac Bridge towers.
-On the fence where Sandy is, it had this plaque about the scale model of the solar system.
-This is Saturn and if you click on the picture, you can probably see Uranus on the pole. Mind-boggling.
-Very hilly, very picturesque, which made for a fun ride home (see youtube).
-But first some icy drink (pina colada, strawberry daquiri - non=alcoholic, of course).
-And saying goodbye to our lizard friend.
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