EVENT

Visit to Arecibo Observatory

  • Visit to Arecibo Observatory

  • Over my years coordinating and speaking on Geek Cruises, I had the rare privilege of visiting the historic and world-renowned Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on three separate occasions:
  • The Three Visits

    • First Visit (October 2001 - Linux Lunacy):
    • Second Visit (January 2002 - Perl Whirl):
      • Visited during Perl Whirl 2002. While touring the facility, I noticed a classic O'Reilly Perl Camel Book resting on one of the resident scientists' bookshelves—a testament to how widely adopted Perl was in research.
      • I also stood on the famous scientist porch/gantry next to the control room, the exact spot where Jodie Foster's character stood in the 1997 sci-fi film Contact.
      • Captured in Flickr album Trips/2002/02-01-PerlWhirl2002/Day-4-San-Juan-Arecibo.
    • Third Visit (April 2002 - Net Nirvana):
      • Visited during the Net Nirvana Geek Cruise. An incredible highlight of this stop was that we got to actually touch the historic observatory dish itself!
      • Captured in Flickr Collection Trips/2002/02-04-NetNirvana.
These facts are as Randal recalls them, but much time has passed for most of this. If you find a factual error, please email realmerlyn@gmail.com.