arecibo observatory

Highly recommend visiting the Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. We were amazed by this marvelous structure. About 100,000 people visit the telescope each year along with 100 or so scientific experts from all over the world. Their website has great information. I found the website by searching "Telescope AND Puerto Rico." http://www.naic.edu The terrain in this part of PR is different than other sections. It is very lush and jungle like....and in the midst of this enchanted forest is the Observatory with extremely high tech equipment. The road getting there is paved, curvy and very rural -- but not scary. It is about 30 minutes from Arecibo.A few facts:-Scientists from around the world use the 305 meter dish to gather radio signals from regions of star formation, planets, distant galaxies, and the atmosphere.-Visitors may view the 1000 feet in diameter dish from the observation deck at the visitors center.-The program is operated by SRI international in cooperation with the National Science Foundation, and others. -The staff at the Observatory are very knowledgeable and delighted to explain the work carried on there. There is a strong focus on education and thus questions are very welcomed.-People are friendly; the introductory video is excellent; and the price is a bargain - adults $10/Children and seniors $6.-In addition to the website, the contact number is 787-878-2612 x 346

I personally do to care for this type of attraction;however, we had 2 in our group that were really interested In it. The walk up is VERY steep. We paid for the VIP tour and the kids liked it. It's an interesting video and the different stuff they have will take you about 20-40 min to go through all of the booths they have set up. The 2 science lovers in our group were thrilled by this.

This structure is a testament to one's persistence to achieve a dream. It was conceived by a couple of scientists in the early 1900's despite initial negative response from the scientific community. But these guys truly believed in this project and with enough work and later on financial support, this dream was finally realized and the world today is benefiting from this realized dream by this group of individuals. There is a self guided tour but there is also a VIP tour which takes you closer to the structure. The only thing is that the special tour is not always available. Try to get this VIP tour if you can .

Doesn't take that long to see the whole facility. Park and walk up a hill to the visitor center. Pay admission and self-tour the exhibits. 20-minute movie starts every half hour. Then guide takes you to the outside patio to view the actual dish. Everyone should see it once.

This place was neat, worlds largest radioscope...if you only have a few days in PR, maybe you can skip going to it. But we did enjoy the film they showed and the small lecture one of the guides gave and the view is good too.

This radar is unique. Only one in the world. I visited in the 70's, and I recently visited in 2014 - took my four kids and my grand-kids this last time. Never get tired of seeing it. It is HUGE. Bit of history - a study was done on where the radar was to be built. Based on the construction requirements only two locations in the world were feasible - Puerto Rico and Czechoslovakia. Puerto Rico being US territory was of course the logical selection.Small kids may not understand what the observatory is about. But for teens and adults, the visit is well worth-ed. This is the largest single-dish radar in the world - period. You really can't get a sense of its size until you see it in person.

To say that the Observatory radio telescope is big is an understatement. The satellite occupies the valley of three hills. The facility is located in the middle of country side, about two hours from San Juan. There are tours from San Juan that make the trip to the Observatory and the Camuy Caves, so check it out and tale advantage. For me it's a 10 minute drive from my uncle's place. The facility has tons of information about our universe, equipment, and the research being conducted there. Visitors can also see a video presentation in the auditorium about the history behind the radio-telescope, and ask questions to staff members that are also researchers. The observation deck is a great place for pics, selfies, etc.. There is a refreshment shop that also serves snacks. The downside is the trek to get the visitors center, there is a pretty steep hill to hike, but there is transportation for special needs visitors. The gift shop is small but those have interesting knick knacks, though I wish it had things about the Observatory itself. Overall if you are visiting Puerto Rico then try to make time to see the world's largest radio-telescope, it's worth the trip.

My husband, who is ham radio operator, wanted to see arecibo, so we went before our cruise. I booked the tour with Robert Moreno from Borikua Tours. He was wonderful and would highly recommend him. He promptly picked us up at our hotel at 9:00 AM and our final drop off was the cruise terminal at about 3:00PM. He is a wealth of information about San Juan and Puerto Rico. From San Juan, it was about ah hour and Half drive to the observatory. On the way, we stopped for a cup of great coffee and to take pictures with some amazing cattle. The observatory is in both English and Spanish. My husband enjoyed reading the information and seeing where it was located. There is a wealth of information plus a movie explaining how it was built and how it is used. After the tour, Robert stopped so we could have an authentic Puerto Rican lunch. He drove around to some special sites and then dropped us off at the pier. I would highly recommend Robert with Borikua tours. He also does amazing Caveland tours.

It's pretty amazing to see this place in real life, fitting in nicely with the mountains around it. My kids were amazed! Inside, a nice little museum with interactive exhibits that kept the kids entertained for a bit while it rained outside.

My family, with two adult children, had a terrific time here. The new visitor center does a great job of explaining the role of the observatory and offers a birds eye view of the whole thing. Of the four of us, only two were interested in science but we all enjoyed the experience. The only fly in the ointment is that the roads going to the observatory were poorly marked. You're sort of on your own getting there. At one point, we found ourselves on the side of a mountain on loose gravel obviously lost. But the relative isolation of the place probably allowed scientists with enough distance to do good research. There's a steep climb from the parking area to the observatory itself. They do have a shuttle if you are handicapped though. Highly recommended!

Unlike some of the reviews, we had no trouble finding this site, located up in the hills/mountains on some back roads. It was worth the trip just to see this unique piece of technology. Not much of a visitor center, and even worse with 100 local 6 year olds hopped up on sugar or something - couldn't even hear inside. Be warned that from the parking lot it's about a 1/2 mile hike up a very steep paved walk to the observatory. If you have a baby carriage or I assume are disabled, it looks like they will shuttle you up, directly to the visitor center.

With its 300 meter diameter the Arecibo radio telescope is the largest in the world. The tour includes a 30 minutes movie that explains it all. Also there are a lot of interactive experiments which are very educational about outer space and physics. Eventually your guide brings you outside where you can look at it!

Hello:We are glad you enjoyed your visit and also, thanks for leaving your comments. We just wanted to clarify that entrance to the observatory's balcony is not free. That is part of entrance fee which, like you said includes self-guided tour in our two-story Visitor Center, a short movie and a talk by one of our guides at the balcony/terrace. Entrance fee for adults is $10 and children from 5-12 years pay $6. There is also our Galaxy Shop, where you can acquire your souvenir. Once again thanks for taking the time to write. Hope you can visit us in the future again.

We enjoyed our drive through the small towns, with excellent signage, to the observatory. The movie explains a great deal and then the guide takes you out to see the large dish. It is amazing what scientists can do.The museum has a large number of well-done and easy to understand exhibits.I'm not truly disabled, but recently had knee surgery, and riding in the van was easy to do. I would not have been able to do the stairs.

The journey here to this place is pretty scenic, lots of turn around farmland. Its very deep inside the farms and residential area but gps will bring you there. There is an exhibition with different scientific stuff, should be good for kids for okay for us. Watched the video and the guide brought us out and gave a pretty good introduction of dish. The dish is huge. Pretty amazing but dirty. Haha. Still good to take a look at the world's largest dish.