COLLAPSE Arecibo Observatory Telescope

Footage of the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory 305-meter telescope. Credit: Courtesy of the Arecibo Observatory, a U.S. National Science Foundation facility Video 1. This video was taken from the vantage point of the Arecibo operations building (Building 1), where the Arecibo telescope operators conduct telescope operations. At the center of the video is the telescope platform, including the Gregorian dome. The catwalk, used to walk from the ground up to the top of the platform, is seen to extend from the left side of the frame to the top of the platform. Tower 4, the location of the August 10th auxiliary cable failure and the Nov 6th main cable failure, stands vertically to the left of center. Next a small puff of “smoke” can be seen emanating from the top of Tower 4, which is the beginning of the failure of Main Cable M4-2, followed by M4-1 and M4-3 and the remaining Tower 4 auxiliary cable. The auxiliary cables were added in the 90’s to support the added weight of the Gregorian dome. With supp