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ZL2VAL > SETI 09.12.03 18:23l 82 Lines 3953 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : F80334ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST
Subj: Arecibo birthday
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DB0SIF<DB0MRW<OK0PPL<DB0RES<ON0AR<ZL2BAU<ZL2BAU<ZL2WA<
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Sent: 031209/0832Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:30986 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : SETI@WW
Arecibo Diaries: The Birthday Present
By Peter Backus
Observing Programs Manager
posted: 02:35 pm ET
08 December 2003
In the words of Indiana Jones, "It's not the years, it's the mileage."
At 6:29 Atlantic Standard Time this morning, I completed fifty-one
orbits of our local star. So, today is my orbital anniversary. In that
time (discounting the Earth?s diurnal rotation), I've traveled nearly 30
billion miles while orbiting the Sun. My colleague, Mike Davis completed
his sixty-fifth orbit two days ago. He's logged eight billion more
miles, which leaves me puzzling over why it is that he consistently
manages to beat me when we race up the stairs to our cabins. On the
grand timescale of the cosmos, I can feel much younger. Since 1952, the
year of my birth, our Solar System has completed a mere 0.2 millionth of
one orbit around the galactic center (a complete orbit is called a
Galactic Year).
However you measure the time, I feel fortunate to be where I am today
because I wanted to be here for as long as I can remember. On another
orbital anniversary four decades ago, I received a very special
present, a children's science book that I've never forgotten. I can still
picture the cover of the book; gray lines and colorful, bright pictures
on a black background. The pictures represented different fields of
science, and inside were sections on each: Geology, Biology, Chemistry,
Physics, Medicine, and of course, Astronomy. I enjoyed all of it?even
the gory pictures of brain surgery. The Astronomy section however,
especially captivated me, with its pictures of galaxies and nebulae. And
then, there were the pictures of telescopes! It was in that wonderful
book that I first saw the newly constructed Arecibo 1,000-foot antenna.
Although the picture of the Arecibo telescope was small, a little more
than an inch across, it was clear to me at age eleven that the dish must
be enormous. I wanted to see for myself just how large it was, so I
decided to pace off 1,000 feet along my street. I started at the
driveway to my house and counted as I walked. At "four hundred" I had to
cross the street, careful not to lose count. At six hundred and fifty, I
passed my friend Ricky's house. At "one-thousand," I looked up from my
feet and suddenly found that I was in unknown territory on my own
street; I didn't know who lived in these houses. I was nearly halfway to
my school. Amazing! I had never seen a structure that big. What it would
be like to use a telescope like that? What wonderful things could it find?
I've traveled a long way from that street, in both time and distance.
Orbital anniversaries have a way of making one reflect on such things. I
remember my first trips to Arecibo, and seeing the huge structure with
its enormous feed suspended over a perfectly round, metallic dimple in
the karst. It catches my breath, and still does. I am certain the look
on my face when I first came upon the telescope was much like the
expression I wore as an eleven-year-old, marveling at the distance I'd
paced. The look reappears with each Arecibo deployment, although today,
my childhood curiosity has given way to adult exploration. I know what
it is like to use the telescope, even if I never know what it is we will
find.
Now, on this orbital anniversary, I am once again using that telescope
that had me pacing the street of my neighborhood so many years ago. And
I suppose in some ways, I feel a bit like Indiana Jones when I look out
into the lush forest that enfolds the observatory. Off on another
adventure at the world's largest telescope dish. That's probably the
best birthday present ever.
=========================
73 de Alan
AX25:ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
APRS:!3903.34S/17406.45E]
IP :zl2val@qsl.net
Message timed: 23:22 on 2003-Dec-09 (NZ local)
Message sent using WinPack-AGW V6.80
Points to ponder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
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