Arecibo Radio-Telescope Observatory

radio-tele­sco­pio-de-areci­bo

NOTE: THIS DISH NO LONGER EXISTS.  THE IMAGE THAT YOU SEE BELOW IS OF WHAT IT ONCE WAS.

You’ve seen it many times. Hol­ly­wood has filmed sev­er­al impor­tant movies there. But did you know that it’s right here in Puer­to Rico?

That’s right!  It’s about a two-hour dri­ve from the San Juan Metro­plex and it’s absolute­ly breath­tak­ing!  Many of the scenes for Jodi Fos­ter’s 1997 block­buster hit “Con­tact” were filmed right there in Areci­bo and in the sur­round­ing towns.  Two years before, Pierce Bros­man filmed his James Bond megahit Gold­en Eye at the same location.

And let me tell you, this thing is a jaw drop­per.  The 1,000-foot dish is the largest in the world!  It’s 167 feet deep in the mid­dle, has a 90-ton plat­form sus­pend­ed 450 feet above the cen­ter and the whole facil­i­ty cov­ers an area of over 20 acres.  Its sur­face is made of thou­sands of per­fo­rat­ed alu­minum pan­els, each mea­sur­ing 3 x 6 feet.

The site is open to the pub­lic Wednes­days thru Sun­days, from 9:00am to 4:00pm. Admis­sion is $10 for adults and $6.00 for chil­dren and seniors.  This includes access to the radio tele­scope area as well as the vis­i­tor’s cen­ter, where you can enjoy a vari­ety of sci­en­tif­ic exhibits.

Get Directions

From 

To 

Add Waypoint 

For  Driving Walking Transit Bicycling

show options  hide options 

Avoid Tolls  Avoid Highways  Avoid Ferries 

Print directions  Reset directions 

Fetch­ing directions.…..

Reset direc­tions
Print direc­tions