The images created from capturing these invisible waves are amazing.  The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is nestled between the mountains in Green Bank WV.  The Green Bank Telescope (GBT) is huge.  It weighs over 17 million pounds and the 2.3 acre dish is made up of over 2004 individually movable panels to allow it to be precisely focused.  A very impressive piece of machinery.  Unfortunately, when it is working it looks like it is doing nothing so it doesn’t make for a very exciting tour.

The exhibits that show images of the galaxy, stars and nebulae collected at all sorts of different wavelengths are the best part.  They can create spectacular 3D images…same way the Hubble images are created.   The physics of the birth, life and death of stars and behavior of pulsars is a cool too.  A fun couple hours.