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Drone Footage of Arecibo Observatory Collapse

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Re: Drone Footage of Arecibo Observatory Collapse

#41
So now, humans are going to be the intergalactic assholes of the universe who go and change their phone number without leaving a forwarding number. When our message sent from Arecibo is finally received, their response will go to a disconnected number. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BVbyCZXc5s

Re: Drone Footage of Arecibo Observatory Collapse

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always think it's funny when people use large planes as a reference for heavy weights, since they're designed to be as light as possible for the volume.

Probably best to compare Arecibo to a suspension bridge instead

Golden Gate bridge is 887 000 tons: https://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/01/us/golden-gate-bridge-fas...

So around 1000 times as heavy.

Re: Drone Footage of Arecibo Observatory Collapse

#44
post #27

Posted this in another thread, but there’s some neat photos from the 60s of the telescope under construction here: https://www.naic.edu/history_gal/historicgal.html Beyond the scientific value, it is (was) just a neat feat of engineering getting this built in the middle of the jungle.

Adding some other materials:

SETI@home Arecibo Observatory documentary, 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX4PZ-fW2YA

An Insider's Tour of the Arecibo Observatory, July 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQJawfbjpxw

_Stare-Way to Heaven_, 73 Magazine article, August 1984 (page 34)

https://archive.org/details/73-magazine-1984-08/

Arecibo story from NASA Special Report 223 Cassette, June 1983 (Starts at 14:48)

https://archive.org/details/NASA223/NASA+223+cleaned-levelat...

Re: Drone Footage of Arecibo Observatory Collapse

#47
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably best to compare Arecibo to a suspension bridge instead

Golden Gate bridge is 887 000 tons: https://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/01/us/golden-gate-bridge-fas... So around 1000 times as heavy.

That sounds like the weight of the whole thing, not just the suspended part.

Re: Drone Footage of Arecibo Observatory Collapse

#48
post #12
post #6

Why were they filming? As in why was the drone in place and looking at a close-up of the cable?

This is quite the coincidence. The drone operator seemed prepared for exactly what was coming.

Yes, they did.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25151342

Re: Drone Footage of Arecibo Observatory Collapse

#49

So now, humans are going to be the intergalactic assholes of the universe who go and change their phone number without leaving a forwarding number. When our message sent from Arecibo is finally received, their response will go to a disconnected number. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BVbyCZXc5s

"now" is doing a lot of work here... If I'm not mistaken, we have about a millennium or a hundred make arrangements.

Re: Drone Footage of Arecibo Observatory Collapse

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work at UW astronomy. It’s mostly symbolic. The main capability loss is that Arecibo was able to transmit, which is unique at its size. As an example, that was useful to rescue the ISEE-3 explorer when it passed through a comet trail in the 1980s. Only Arecibo was powerful enough to blast a radio message through the comet trail. (PDF reference: https://ipnpr.jpl.nasa.gov/progress_report/42-84/84T.PDF ) Arecibo was…

Asking as a non-astronomer: my understanding is that other telescopes in this class are synthetic/multiple aperture, and not single-aperture like Arecibo (with a small number of exceptions, like FAST). Is there any science you can do on extremely-large single-aperture telescopes that you can't do on comparable synthetic/multiple aperture telescopes?

While maximum resolution is limited by the diameter or the largest baseline in an array, there is one advantage to single dishes: There is no lack of small baselines. Which implies that you can only really get images of large, dim structures with a single dish.

Also sensitivity is given by total collecting area, which is very competitive for a single huge dish compared to a limited number of small dishes.

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