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The Birthday Present

December 08, 2003

by Dr. Peter Backus, Observing Programs Manager

In the words of Indiana Jones, Its not the years, its the mileage.  At 6:29 Atlantic Standard Time this morning, I completed fifty-one orbits of our local star.  So, today is my orbital anniversary.  In that time (discounting the Earths diurnal rotation), Ive traveled nearly 30 billion miles while orbiting the Sun. My colleague, Mike Davis completed his sixty-fifth orbit two days ago.  Hes logged eight billion more miles, which leaves me puzzling over why it is that he consistently manages to beat me when we race up the stairs to our cabins. On the grand timescale of the cosmos, I can feel much younger. Since 1952, the year of my birth, our Solar System has completed a mere 0.2 millionth of one orbit around the galactic center (a complete orbit is called a Galactic Year).

However you measure the time, I feel fortunate to be where I am today because I wanted to be here for as long as I can remember. On another orbital anniversary four decades ago, I received a very special present--a childrens science book that Ive never forgotten. I can still picture the cover of the book; gray lines and colorful, bright pictures on a black background. The pictures represented different fields of science, and inside were sections on each: Geology, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Medicine, and of course, Astronomy. I enjoyed all of it -- even the gory pictures of brain surgery. The Astronomy section however, especially captivated me, with its pictures of galaxies and nebulae. And then, there were the pictures of telescopes! It was in that wonderful book that I first saw the newly-constructed Arecibo 1,000 foot antenna.

Although the picture of the Arecibo telescope was small -- a little more than an inch across -- it was clear to me at age eleven that the dish must be enormous. I wanted to see for myself just how large it was, so I decided to pace off 1,000 feet along my street. I started at the driveway to my house and counted as I walked. At four hundred I had to cross the street, careful not to lose count. At six hundred and fifty, I passed my friend Rickys house. At one-thousand, I looked up from my feet and suddenly found that I was in unknown territory on my own street; I didnt know who lived in these houses. I was nearly halfway to my school. Amazing! I had never seen a structure that big. What it would be like to use a telescope like that? What wonderful things could it find?

Ive traveled a long way from that street, in both time and distance. Orbital anniversaries have a way of making one reflect on such things. I remember my first trips to Arecibo, and seeing the huge structure with its enormous feed suspended over a perfectly round, metallic dimple in the karst. It catches my breath, and still does. I am certain the look on my face when I first came upon the telescope was much like the expression I wore as an eleven year old, marveling at the distance Id paced. The look reappears with each Arecibo deployment, although today, my childhood curiosity has given way to adult exploration. I know what it is like to use the telescope, even if I never know what it is we will find. 

Now, on this orbital anniversary, I am once again using that telescope that had me pacing the street of my neighborhood so many years ago. And I suppose in some ways, I feel a bit like Indiana Jones when I look out into the lush forest that enfolds the observatory. Off on another adventure at the worlds largest telescope dish. Thats probably the best birthday present ever.