Green Bank

27 July 2008: NRAO Green Bank, West Virginia(38°-25′-48.2″N 79°-49′-03.93″W)

I live about 4 hours east of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia and in July of 2008 my college age nephew, who was staying with me for the summer while doing an internship, and I decided to take a road trip to visit the observatory.

It was an interesting trip to the NRAO, winding through the mountains and arriving in a cell phone dead zone. We took a tour of the facility, viewed the exhibits at the Green Bank Science Center, had lunch at the Starlight Cafe and browsed the Galaxy Gift Shop. We also had the opportunity to walk around the grounds a bit and take some breathtaking photographs of the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), a 100m fully-steerable radio telescope.

It was a long day of driving (about 8 hours in all) but well worth the trip. We learned a great deal about the history of radio astronomy and the interesting work being done at the Green Bank facility.