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Its anthem is the wind in her trees and the waves of her
seas. The Flag of Earth flies at many SETI locations around the world. It symbolizes the fact that SETI is carried out on behalf of Humanity as a whole. The individual people, organizations, and nations involved are unimportant compared to the overall efforts of Humanity that have collectively made this search for their brethren possible. The yellow part of the flag is the sun, the blue circle symbolizes the Earth, and the small white circle represents the Moon. ...The flag flying at SETI Net was purchased from Mr. Cadle at a SARA convention in 1985.
Some
of my most interesting times were spent with the
SARA group at
NRAO. That is where I got a look at the very first amateur built radio
telescope. (Grote Reber died on the last few days of 2002. Truly a pioneer).
Fall Of The 300 - One
of the other antennas at NRAO was the 300 foot drift
scan machine. This was a truly awesome thing that collapsed of its own
weight about six months after I saw it. The 300 was being used as a SETI antenna
during a project called SERENDIP (Serendipity) that used the antenna in a
parasitic mode. This antenna came to an inglorious end at 9:43 PM EST on Tuesday the
15 of
November 1988. That cold night the 300 foot simply collapsed. The failure was due to
the failure of a key structural element - a large gusset plate in the box girder
assembly that formed the main support for the antenna.
Before the Fall - November 15, 1988
After the Fall - November 16, 1988 photos by Richard Porcas The replacement antenna is up and running at NRAO now.
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