Make:

We're not giving up the ship!

We will continue to pursue our goal of opening up the world of radio astronomy to students and the community.

General Dynamics here in Mountain View (about 15 minutes south of the Bracewell Observatory) is about to decommission a 45 foot dish (see photo at http://www.bambi.net/stanford_dishes/photos_general_dynamics/HPIM0852.JPG ) which they said they would be willing to make available at no charge for educational use. As you can see from the photo, this dish could be converted into an exciting public radio telescope, and provide access for amateur projects of all kinds, ranging from SETI to AMSAT.

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Bob Lash, M.D.
President
Friends of the Bracewell Observatory Association

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That sucks.
I used to live a few miles from that area, and it is a great place for walks and bike rides. The dishes only added to the scenery.

Since they're getting rid of them anyway, perhaps some makers out on the West Coast could pick them up and build a homebrew radio telescope...

I doubt that the dishes would be available for sale. Assuming the same people responsible for decomissioning them in the first place are in charge of taking things apart, they will likely just smash them into tiny pieces and then salt the Earth so that nothing will ever grow there. What a shame.

for no compelling reason

When this was first posted on Make, a fellow named wirehead_arts commented that he lives near the land in question and that it is probably worth a lot of money. That is no doubt the compelling reason, even if the supporters of this project disagree with it.

Of course wirehead_arts also acted like a jerk in making his comments (we don't all live within driving distance, dude), but that doesn't make him wrong.

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