T he B i G GBT Tour
08.05.2018
We were granted the opportunity for a "get close and touch" tour of the big Green Bank Telescope that is not on the usual public tour menu. They do like to keep it sparkly and white, so each summer, they higher 16 full time painters for 3 months to spend 8 hour shifts repainting the scope. It takes 10 years for them to completely paint the whole scope.
Anyway, this means that the scope is sitting in the stow position and can be visited...We did! The first elevator takes you up to beneath the dish. This lower part of the scope remains level so they can access many of the electronics of the scope. The second elevator actually goes up and at an angle to the receiving room and platform. When on the platform, you are 420 ft about the ground,
GBT SOL and WM Size Comparison
It's Not for the Quesy
Don't look down!
Enjoying the View
Unfathomable
Howard, clean your dish when you are done with it.
Celebrating 420...feet in the air, that is!
Cloudy day...in Optical light.
Mr Snuffleupagus, Wire you here?
We could see our house
2209 actuators to keep things lined up
That Track be Whack!
The mountains are still higher
The GBT Control Room- Open 24_7
No Kidding...This is how the painters go to work.
Don't be on Platform when in use!
