Comments on: The antennas that capture the universe http://donturn.com/blog/2007/08/01/the-antennas-that-capture-the-universe/ Selected ideas and links. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:06:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: sean http://donturn.com/blog/2007/08/01/the-antennas-that-capture-the-universe/comment-page-1/#comment-29180 sean Wed, 01 Aug 2007 19:05:24 +0000 http://donturn.com/blog/2007/08/01/the-antennas-that-capture-the-universe/#comment-29180 I've actually been up in one of those. I went to NMT, which is right by there. A friend of a friend worked at the VLA and got us in after hours. One of the dishes was out near the barn for maintenance so we climbed up into it. The hardware looked *ancient* After that we got a tour of the data-crunching facilities. Banks and banks of tape machines lined up like something out of a futuristic 70's movie. Pretty laughable compared to its depiction in the movie Contact (which was filmed while was in school there.) Sorry for the long comment, but I just spent about half an hour looking for my photos from inside the dish but couldn't find them. One was really neat: you could see the mountains off in the distance, cropped below by the curving rim of the dish. Good times. I’ve actually been up in one of those. I went to NMT, which is right by there. A friend of a friend worked at the VLA and got us in after hours. One of the dishes was out near the barn for maintenance so we climbed up into it. The hardware looked *ancient* After that we got a tour of the data-crunching facilities. Banks and banks of tape machines lined up like something out of a futuristic 70’s movie. Pretty laughable compared to its depiction in the movie Contact (which was filmed while was in school there.)

Sorry for the long comment, but I just spent about half an hour looking for my photos from inside the dish but couldn’t find them. One was really neat: you could see the mountains off in the distance, cropped below by the curving rim of the dish.

Good times.

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