Comments on: Bear Lake Radio Telescope

By: anonymous

anonymous — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:23:59 +0000

Yes, it’s a huge dish. I was part of a science exchange which got to go inside of it. It was turned to point straight up and 40+ people were all milling around inside the dish under the radio horn. Very cool, and very nice piece of hardware on a scale that is hard to relate to unless you’re near it. One of those things which doesn’t look big because you’re used to seeing smaller dishes which look just like it. It’s on a whole different scale. It’s just down the road from Star City actually… co-located with a small airstrip which I believe was part of Moscow’s perimeter defensive ring. Least that’s the spiel we got.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:17:56 +0000

Well, I worked in the building next to the dish (some 200 yards)
Nothing too spooky … sorry
Long-distance cosmos (space) communication facility, for e.g. Mars missions.

Not sure if it was used in all those fascinating soviet’s missions to Mars, Moon, Venus, etc. in 60’s, or build after that.

By: doob

doob — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 22:21:36 +0000

Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
And right in the center of this image is the MCC-M or CUP-M in Korolev. It’s a small town near Moscow. Where I used to work for a year.

By: doob

doob — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 22:07:11 +0000

I can tell U some bout this! This is so called NIP-34(rus). It means Tracking Ground site. This NIP is used for tracking telemetry and uplinking cmmands to ISS or MKS (in russian) from mission control center in Korolev. And I’m not shure, but this nip provides connection between ground teams in MCC-M (CUP-M - Centr Upravlenija Poletami - Moskva) & MCC-Huston.

By: svo

svo — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 13:36:06 +0000

Zvezdny Gorodok (aka Star City) is just outside of the high resolution area. Look east of the Bear Lake dish, past the airport. Not much to see, just a little town. It has been the base and training center for the Russian space program since 1960. Is still a semi-closed city (open for tours about once a month - really depressing), which might explain the lack of info on the internet. These dishes are visible from the road on the way out to the Gagarin Center. I guessed they were part of the flight communications network due to the proximity of base.

By: MrWhipple

MrWhipple — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 16:18:01 +0000

The VLA also makes an appearance at the beginning of the 1984 film, 2010.

By: zmaster

zmaster — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 15:22:04 +0000

I think this is where the VLA is located:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

Unfortunately it’s a low-res image. I’ve driven by here on US 60 before and you can see the dishes from the highway.

The VLA was the location in the movie Contact where the message is received.

SETI stands for the “Search for Extra-Terrastrial Intelligence”, which the VLA is probably rarely (if ever) used for.

Enjoy.

By: Chad

Chad — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:19:08 +0000

I think this is the one in Shchelkovo that KMD was talking about. You can barely see it in the middle but the shadow shows a satellite dish.
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

By: Jim Toth

Jim Toth — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:07:50 +0000

I believe Bing was referring to the VLA telescope (actually a radio interferometer) located in New Mexico. The VLA is comprised of 27 antennas arranged in a Y shape.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=vla%20telescope&sa=N&tab=wi

By: northern git

northern git — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 12:02:32 +0000

I think Bing means the bit at the beginning of Contact. Loads of relatively small telescopes in the desert somewhere. I know the ones he means but dont know where it is - whats that big State east of california where all the Area 51 type stuff goes on - its probably there.