Arecibo Observatory

Astronomy is definitely a passion of mine so I think telescopes are pretty cool, especially big ones. The biggest telescope out there is the 305m radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory. Because radio waves are larger than optical waves, the surface of the antenna does not have to be as smooth allowing the telescope to be built much larger. The dish of Arecibo is made of some 40,000 perforated aluminum panels. Here is a nice diagram of how Arecibo works.

The Arecibo Observatory is often used for SETI projects (among many other scientific research projects) and is also highly recognizable because it has been used in Contact by Ellie (the lead character) and as part of the villain’s evil plan in James Bond’s GoldenEye. Large telescopes often look fairly interesting from satellite imagery as well. Wikimapia has been used to mark a number of those telescopes to provide us with information about them. I will start with Arecibo and move on to a four large optical telescopes and two additional radio telescopes. Clicking an image will either take you to a larger image or to the location at Wikimapia.

Arecibo in Puerto Rico
Arecibo is located in North-West Pureto Rico (outlined in yellow).

Arecibo in Puerto Rico
Here is Arecibo a bit closer. Aside from the large dish, the 900 ton platform (and its shadow) that is suspended 450 feet above the dish is clearly seen along with the three towers that support it.

Arecibo in Puerto Rico
Here were are closer to the dish giving a larger view of the platform and its receiver dome.

The largest radio dish is Arecibo’s 305m. The largest optical telescope is 10m; significantly smaller! The smaller optical observatories and their complexes can still provide for interesting images.

South African Large Telescope
South African Large Telescope (SALT): 11m (Optical)

Subaru Telescope
Subaru Telescope: 8.3m (Optical)
The Subaru Telesctop is one of Mauna Kea’s Observatories along with the 10m Keck Telescope (which is not pictured here because the resolution is too low).

Hale Telescope
Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory: 5.1m (Optical)

Very Large Telescope (VLT)
Very Large Telescope (VLT): 4x 8m Telescopes at Paranal Observatory (Optical).

Very Large Array (VLA)
Very Large Array (VLA): 27x 25m Radio Telescopes with combined resolution of a 36km antenna.

Effelsberg Radio Telescope
Effelsberg Radio Telescope: 100m

Visit Arecibo at Wikimapia! You can visit the other telescopes at Wikimapia by clicking their image.