Puerto Rico is an island about 1000 miles south of Florida. It is close to the equator so it never gets very cold. When Flat Katie arrived in February it was 85 degrees during the day and got down to about 70 degrees at night. She was thinking of going to the stores here to buy some clothes to wear that were a bit cooler, maybe even a swimsuit or 2 before she hit the beach. Since the people in Puerto Rico speak spanish, Flat Katie had to brush up on her spanish language a bit before going shopping. After a few days of practice she was speaking spanish just like a native.

    The Arecibo Observatory is a radio telescope run by Cornell university for the National Science Foundation. It is the largest single dish radio telescope in the world. It has a main reflector sitting in the ground that is 1000 feet across. It covers about 20 acres. This dish is just an oversized version of the tv satellite dishes that you see on the top of some peoples houses. Instead of pointing at satellites that carry tv stations, this radio telescope looks out at the atmosphere, asteroids, planets, stars, and galaxies to learn more about how they work.

    When you look at a star at night, you see the light with your eyes that the star gives off. It turns out that stars also emit radio waves. These radio waves are just like (the same frequencies) as the signals from radio and tv stations (although we haven't picked up Sesame Street from any stars yet..). We don't see these radio waves from the stars just like we don't see the radio waves from tv and radio stations because our eyes are not sensitive to this frequency. But they're still there to be studied.

    Flat Katie took a tour of the observatory with phil and luis murray.
The first picture shows Flat Katie on her way up to the platform. That is the platform above her head. It is about 500 feet above the ground.  The radio waves bounce off the dish (it's down below.. you can't see it here) and then go up into the big round ball (they call it the gregorian dome) just above katie's head. Inside the ball is a receiver that records the radio  waves. The bridge to the right of katie is called the cat walk. You have to walk up it to get to the platform.

The second picture shows Katie with Luis Murray (that's Luis on the right) at the visitor center balcony. You can see how green it is in Puerto Rico even in the winter time. Flat Katie just told Luis the story of how she got flattened.  Louis has his eyes closed because he's afraid the platform might fall and flatten him too.

The third picture shows Phil with Flat Katie. You can see part of the dish down below in the background. The radio waves come from the stars, hit the dish, and then bounce up into the round ball where they are recorded. After this picture was taken, phil decided that maybe it really was time to get his hair cut (and maybe go on a diet..).

We started up the cat walk to the platform but had to come back. It turns out that Flat Katie is afraid of heights. We even offered to put her back in her first class mailing envelope, but she said "no way am I going up  that cat walk!! ".  We had to hurry back anyway because it was time for lunch. Flat Katie has turned into a real puerto rican. She didn't want to be late for her rice and beans.

    Hopefully one of these days the other Katie (the unflattened version) will show up at the observatory so she can get a tour. Rumor has it that this Katie travels with two sidekicks. The 3 schemers were recently caught planning their escape to Puerto Rico. Thats Will on the left, Katie in the middle, and Ally on the right. It's a lot easier to plan with a popsicle in hand.

You can also go to the Arecibo observatory home page or to phil's home page.