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- The Arecibo Observatory at the Upcoming 240th American Astronomical Society Meeting06 Apr, 2022
- The Arecibo Observatory Survey Salvage Committee Report06 Apr, 2022
- Facilities and Operations Update06 Apr, 2022
- PRISMA Meteor Radar Arrives at AO04 Apr, 2022
- The Grand Reopening of the Angel Ramos Science and Visitor Center at the Arecibo Observatory01 Apr, 2022
- Orbital stability analysis and photometric characterization of the second Earth Trojan asteroid 2020 XL531 Mar, 2022
- Arecibo Celebrates International Women’s Day31 Mar, 2022
- A Letter from the Director Eng. Francisco Cordova31 Mar, 2022
- The History of Arecibo’s Legacy Telescope to Impact the Future, Thanks to the AO Salvage Survey Committee31 Mar, 2022
- Announcing AO/GBT Single Dish Summer School May 16th - 20th, 2022 30 Mar, 2022
- NSF REU program at Arecibo receives funding for next 3 years23 Mar, 2022
- A Parkes "Murriyang" Search for Pulsars and Transients in the Large Magellanic Cloud23 Mar, 2022
- Noise analysis in the European Pulsar Timing Array data release 2 and its implications on the gravitational-wave background search23 Mar, 2022
- Arecibo S-band Radar Characterization of Local-scale Heterogeneities within Mercury's North Polar Deposits23 Mar, 2022
- Arecibo’s Eye on the Sun21 Mar, 2022
Arecibo Observatory: Unparalleled Science and Discovery
Byadmin21 July 2021 Education

Education |
In the Spring of 2021, the University of Central Florida (UCF) offered a unique course designed to give students a deep, exclusive understanding of the science, engineering, and operations of the Arecibo Observatory, titled “The Arecibo Observatory: Unparalleled Science & Discovery”. The seminar-styled graduate course was offered through the NASA-funded Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), partnering with NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI).
Many of the course attendees, who were UCF undergraduate and graduate students, admitted that they did not know much about the facility prior to the course. In an anonymous survey conducted at the end of the course, students shared that their motivations for registering for the class ranged from “wanting to know more about what the telescope was capable of” to “what it is like to work as an observational astronomer.”
The course was designed to cater to such interests; each week a scientist, engineer, or a representative from the management team at the Arecibo Observatory spoke (virtually) with the students, sharing their own experience and expertise with the group. Then, the students would engage in their own research on a related topic and present their findings later that week to fuel a discussion between their classmates and the UCF faculty, which was guided by the AO representative and the course instructor Dr. Addriene Dove.
One student noted how interesting the radar lecture was. “I thought it was amazing that you could derive so much information about a target from a single radar echo.”
Others cited how important the facility was overall: “Arecibo does amazing work across multiple disciplines and is irreplaceable.” That student added, “I really appreciated the opportunities Arecibo created for education, inclusion, and diversity in their community and in the scientific community as a whole.”
As for what the students take away from the semester’s lessons, Dr. Adrienne Dove, the instructor for the course, says, “I hope the students come away from the course with a better understanding of the amazing breadth and depth of science achievable by Arecibo, as well as a deeper understanding of what is required to build and operate a facility as long-lasting and scientifically productive as the Arecibo Observatory.”
When asked about the future of the facility, one student replied, “I hope AO can build the most state-of-the-art telescope in the world in the near future, whatever that may look like. I also hope they can continue to do amazing science with the data they have and can continue to educate many more students.”
You can access the recorded lectures here: Arecibo Observatory: Unparalleled Science and Discovery (password = radio)
Article written by Dr. Tracy Becker - AO Collaborator / SwRI Research Scientist
Contact: tbecker@swri.edu |
Dr. Adrienne (Addie) Dove |
Keywords: observatory, arecibo, radio, telescope, education, class, seminar, ucf, Lunar, Asteroid, Surface, Science, dove ,nasa