Telescope technicians can enjoy the view when they’re working on the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), hundreds of feet above the gorgeous West Virginia countryside.
Hoists for the Painters
It takes years to completely repaint the Green Bank Telescope, and painters arrive every summer to keep this endless task going. The painters are suspended in these hoists beneath the backup structure of the GBT where they have 7,652 trusses to paint.
Painting the GBT
Each of the 2004 aluminum panels of the 2.3 acres of Green Bank Telescope’s surface must be scraped and repainted on a rotating schedule. It takes years to paint the entire GBT, and painters arrive every summer to keep this endless task going.
The paint on the GBT is a special blend that reflects sunlight, gives off heat, and its molecules do not give off radio waves.
Removing a Prime Focus Receiver
A telescope engineer inspects a receiver slotted into the cage at the Green Bank Telescope’s Prime Focus. This is where the radio waves come together after they have reflected off of the telescope’s 100-meter dish.
The GBT’s huge metal feed arm towers 200 feet above the dish, ending in a retractable boom at the Prime Focus. Radio waves can pour directly into a receiver like this one cradled in a metal-framed box on the boom. The boom can tilt and twist to align the receiver perfectly to the incoming waves.
Prime Focus Feed Horn
A telescope engineer readies a feed horn to funnel radio waves into a receiver on the Green Bank Telescope’s Prime Focus. This is where the radio waves come together after they have reflected off of the telescope’s 100-meter dish.
The GBT’s huge metal feed arm towers 200 feet above the dish, ending in a retractable boom at the Prime Focus. Radio waves can pour directly into a receiver cradled in a metal-framed box on the boom. The boom can tilt and twist to align the receiver perfectly to the incoming waves.
Installing a Receiver on the GBT
On a floating platform suspended from the 64-foot high feed arm on the Green Bank Telescope is the room that houses its eight receivers. In this photo, a large feed horn for a long wavelength receiver is being steadied so that a cryogenic pump can be attached. The supercooled receiver will collect the waves funneling down this horn and send them along fiber to the computers nearly two miles away in the noise-shielded control room.