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SETI
- Allen Telescope Array
- Optical SETI
- Interstellar Message Construction
- Project Phoenix 1995-2004
- Background Science
- History of SETI
- Center for SETI Research Team
- Other people doing SETI
- Hollywood's View of SETI
The Penultimate Trip
by Peter Backus - Manager, SETI Observing Programs
Some words are just plain fun to use. Penultimate is one of them. I like the rich, round syllables and the words latinate air of authority when I tell people, Today is the first day of our penultimate Project Phoenix observing session. Once the brief pleasure of dusting off and using this rarely-encountered adjective subsides, I have to confront my own mixed feelings the word leaves in its wake, for Im reminded that the end of a journey is approaching. And what a journey it has been!
Our relationship with the huge dish in the jungle began more than ten years ago when, as part of the NASA SETI Program, the Institutes SETI astronomers were awarded 2,600 hours of use on the worlds largest telescope.
NASAs High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) spent 200 of those hours in October and November, 1992, searching about two dozen Sun-like stars at the limited frequency bands then available at Arecibo. Happily, between 1994 and 1998, Arecibo was able to conduct major facilities upgrades thanks to funding from NASAs HRMS and planetary radar programs, and the National Science Foundation. These improvements allowed the instrument to provide wider frequency coverage and increased sensitivity.
With the transition from government to private funding in 1993, the SETI Institute launched Project Phoenix, which continued and continues much of the NASA program. First we traveled to the Parkes Observatory in Australia for sixteen weeks of observing with the largest telescope in the Southern Hemisphere. Then, between September of 1996 and April of 1998, we had 50% use of the venerable 140-Foot Telescope of the NRAO in West Virginia. All during this time, we kept our eyes on the progress of the upgrades at Arecibo.
Finally, in September 1998, we returned to Arecibo as one of the first users of the newly-renovated telescope. The homecoming was a bit more exciting than we expected, greeted as we were by Hurricane Georges. Subsequent visits have been far less tempestuous. Between September 1998 and April 2003, we visited Arecibo nine times, each time observing for about 200 hours.
So, here we are, once more for the next-to-last time at Arecibo Observatory with our Phoenix equipment and team. We will turn the attention of our expanded search system to S-Band, the high frequency portion of our search. This session, and the final one in February, should allow us to observe those stars that weve covered at lower frequencies. With luck, we will achieve most of the goals of the NASA Targeted Search. Perhaps well make a discovery that will bring us back to Arecibo many more times to study our extraterrestrial neighbors!