Photos by Frank DiMeo, José Maldonado, and Edgar Castro
NAIC/AO Newsletter July 1997
14th July, 1997 - Inauguration of the upgraded Arecibo Gregorian Telescope. It is the day we all have been waiting for. Through all four years of the construction phase, I have been looking forward to the day when with a "GO" command at a workstation, I would be able to point the telescope, bring the appropriate feed and receiver to the focus, set up the front & back ends, and five minutes later marvel as a brand-new HI absorption spectrum of a high-redshift AGN pops-up on the screen. Finally, that day has come - or has it quite yet?
As we drive through the Karst hills beyond Esperanza on our way to join the Governor of Puerto Rico, the NSF director, the Cornell President, present and previous NAIC directors, users and friends of the telescope at the grand dedication ceremony, memories of events past flash before my eyes. The huge ground-screen panels (clad in made-in-India GMRT mesh) being hung in place, changing the rim-road sky-line; RSI setting up their working area, their offices in RV's; making new friends; the rediscovery, while excavating sites for the new tie-down anchors, of the lost entrance to the sink hole that joins "our big hole in the ground" to the Tanama river; the Gregorian dome being lifted to the feed arm, rising from the mist-covered bowl, shining in the morning sunlight like a precious pearl; Chris framing ADAM, nee AMOCO; the re-modeled Electronics lab with rooms dedicated to the new IF/LO system and the Correlator; Upgrade meetings - sometimes heated discussions; Kiriaki hanging in a harness from the apex of the partially assembled tertiary; the feeling of suppressed fear, that element of approaching doom, as Hurricanes Luis, Marilyn, Bertha, and then Hortense bore down on us, all in the midst of the construction work; the list goes on. ...
11:40 A.M. - We are assembled in an elegant tent on the rim-road awaiting the arrival of the Governor. This is where all the big pulleys used to reside to lift things to the platform. This morning, it is paved, decorated and wearing a festive look. At the reception center, situated in a separate tent, we are presented with a package containing picture postcards, the new NAIC/AO brochure and a clutch of AOVEF leaflets. Display boards around the center show pictures of the Gregorian construction phase. Sweat running down our backs in our unaccustomed formal fineries, we crowd around the two booths serving cold drinks - cooling off while meeting old friends, famous names, or just eves-dropping on the delightful historical musings that float on the air from all sides.
A helicopter is heard overhead, all are requested to be seated. The Director of NSF, Dr. Neal Lane, the President of Cornell university, Dr. Hunter Rawlings III, the NAIC Director, Dr. Paul Goldsmith, and the Observatory Director, Dr. Daniel Altschuler usher Governor Rosselló to the podium. With a short, succinct introduction, Daniel invites the Governor to deliver his message. An hour of speeches follow expressing congratulations, gratitude, appreciation, and best wishes for the future of this radar/radio telescope, standing today on the brink of its rebirth.
With Joe Taylor at the microphone praising "arroz y habichuelas" while revealing gravitational waves, I look around. There among the audience is Bill Gordon, father of this telescope, that has perhaps grown even greater in importance than he foresaw at its inception; Tor Hagfors, father of the Gregorian upgrade, Per-Simon Kildal, designer of the optics, all the way from Sweden with his family; Carrie and Marteen Hooghoudt, wife and son of the first project manager and world famous antenna designer, the late Ben Hooghoudt. At the podium it's "our Carmen's" turn to address us now. There she stands, the first woman astronomer from Puerto Rico, daughter of this observatory, though her official title says "Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory" today. When I joined the Observatory, Carmen was already one of the indispensable people here, although then "just" a graduate student. Starting from how to prepare and make an observation, through the software resources of the Observatory, even to devising the format of this Newsletter, Carmen knew it all!
The final speech has been made. After the symbolic opening of the champagne, we rise to proceed towards the waiting school buses, saving us the climb to the best open-air bistro in the whole Universe, the AOVEF.
Over crab salad, a delicious entree, and chocolate "dulce", washed down by excellent chilean wine, Chris and I chat about spectral co-habitation with LtCdr Rico Antonetti and Mr. Ralph Ayala from the AFWTF at Roosevelt Roads. The conversation takes its natural course through spatial co-habitation with endangered wet-land species at Caño Tiburones, to farm irrigation in Guanica. Following the grand lunch, accompanied by a local band, the dignitaries are taken around the AOVEF, the Gregorian Dome, and the remodeled control/backend room.
Another memorable day in the history of the Arecibo Observatory approaches its end - is it bringing us to an immediate new dawn? Any birth has its preoccupations, pain and worries, it also has its rewards, reliefs and comfort in the knowledge that the "team" is working together towards a common goal. The construction phase of the Gregorian upgrade is indeed mostly over. With the challenges of the next few months ahead, doubts and concerns keep creeping in. Nevertheless, as one of our colleagues put it that day in the simplest of words, "We will get there".
Photos by Frank DiMeo, José Maldonado, and Edgar Castro