Blue Checker for getting around the campus
The Green Bank Telescope from afar
Continuing on our drive through West Virginia we find ourselves visiting the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank. We also find ourselves referring to ourselves in the majestic plural which, if Mark Twain is correct, means we have a tapeworm.
The NRAO at Green Bank has the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. The GBT is 100 x 110 meters, or two acres, big. You can sort of see it through the rain in the bottom photo. As a side note, we are tempted to return to West Virginia to photograph every item named after Senator Byrd. We reckon that project will take us several months.
We couldn't take pictures of the GBT from nearby because the electronics in our digital camera would interfere with the telescope's reception. The whole area is within the National Radio. There's no cell phone reception and only a couple of radio and TV signals. To minimize electronic interference while moving around the campus, NRAO employees use old diesel cars, mainly Checkers. Parts for the old cars are beginning to get scarce.
The observatory has a nifty science center and public tours are free. At the campus entrance is the first radio telescope ever built. It was constructed by amateur astronomer Grote Reber in his Wheaton, Illinois backyard in 1937. Reber donated the telescope to Green Bank in the 1960s and it was painted a patriotic red, white and blue for the 1976 Bicentennial.
Unrelated: We have been spearfishing on Lake Winnebago.
That's my dream car.
Posted by: Marie | 15 February 2010 at 11:06 PM
I like 'em too. They're nice and roomy inside.
Posted by: Joe | 16 February 2010 at 08:24 PM
I see it, it's very big! You're driving Checkers only? Then the area would be like a blast from the past, with all of you using a vintage. BTW, the car on the picture has the yummiest shade of blue! Is it yours?
Posted by: Nita Stelling | 09 May 2011 at 01:11 PM