[time-nuts] Re: The Collapse of Puerto Rico’s Iconic Telescope [April 5th, 2021 New Yorker]

[Dana Whitlow]

Arecibo's long-standing maser (Symmetricom MHM-2010) died right at the end
of 2018.
In communications with the mfr it came to pass that "repair" was deemed to
be economically
infeasible. so the observatory fell back on a FS725 locked to PPS from a
CNS Clock II,
both of which I had purchased a few years prior to my retirement "just in
case".
(The FS725 is a PRS-10 at heart, but built into a nice looking enclosure
along with the
power supplies and several isolating 10 MHz distribution amplifiers.)

Sometime last year (I don't recall just when) the GPSDRb system was
replaced by
another H-maser, a loaner as I understand it.  I never heard what brand or
model it is.  As
of a few minutes ago when I checked, it is still ticking along just fine.
The Clock Room at
Arecibo is located in the operations bldg, at  18.346559, -66.753496
(these coordinates
are even roughly at the right location in the bldg).  That building complex
was very lucky
in coming through the collapse essentially undamaged, and continues in
operation to
this day.

Remember, the Arecibo Observatory is more than just the big telescope.
There are two
optical labs on campus, one dedicated to LIDAR studies of the upper
atmosphere and
the other to airglow studies.  Also there is a separate 12m fully-steerable
radio telescope
on a hilltop at roughly  18.348394, -66.751469  (I say "roughly" because
that seems to
be on s stitching boundary in the Google Earth image of the hilltop, and my
attempted
coordinate determination for the dish itself failed).  That telescope is
partly operational,
but may have suffered some damage from H. Maria back in 2017.

Anyway, each of these other research activities requires either (or both
of) accurate time
and frequency.

Bob is correct in saying that groups are looking at what could be done to
"rebuild" the
large telescope, in altogether new form, to surpass (not just replace) the
old one in
performance.   Persuading the NSF *not* to scuttle the affair, and finding
several hundred
megabucks in funding, are the big issues right now.

Dana
(former Keeper of The Clock at Arecibo, retired ~4 years ago)




On Tue, Mar 30, 2021 at 6:07 AM ew via time-nuts <time-nuts at lists.febo.com>
wrote:

> GOOD Morning Tom
>
>                  Thank you for the super information Read it over and over.
> To me no joy, sadness for Astronomy, Science, Puerto Rico and the US. China
> is now the leader with a 500 meter unit! Did follow it since the seventies
> because of the low noise receivers.  Remember the 417 Triodes? I had some
> for Ham use.
>    Any body knows what happened to its Maser?
>
>    Bert Kehren
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