the long road to the stars. . . .

Posted by derrick on August 31, 2007

Oh yeah, Jodie Foster left along time ago. But one could hope. So yesterday began the middle of the telescopic and sometimes myopic attempt to reach the Arecibo Observatory. Of course this is the place that discovered the first extra-solar planet but was also used as a film location in “Contact” and in a recent James Bond film. No wonder. This is a larger than life place if there ever was one. The radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory is the largest on the planet and is part of the Astronomy and Ionosphere Center operated by Cornell University along with the National Science Foundation. The telescope has a 1000 ft dish and a 1,000 tone antenna clashing wildly against the dense Puerto Rican mountains. You can visit their website at www.naic.edu.The whole adventure started when I contacted the director asking permission to film. He was most agreeable however, there was going to be a new director. I would have to contact him. Every attempt to reach him did not work out. Ok then, I’d just go film what I could. So we set aside a couple days stop in Arecibo along the way. Finally when the day came, my partner was sick and I did not have access to a camera. Finally yesterday I was on my way. However, I had to pick up some gear. Of course I got out the door late and not knowing how long it would take, was late to pick up my gear. By the way as much as I’m enjoying driving my rented Ford Explorer, driving in PR is quite the challenge! So I waited at another location and in the end we never met up. So we took off for the telescope and ended up too late. Yikes! The next option was to stay near by and then go the next morning. Finally with cameras in hand we arrived this morning. I took a good hours worth of footage to show you later and got some fun little souvenirs to boot.