Today I really understood WHY I am here, and why you guys could never understand HOW you feel when you see IT, the telescope. Not in a picture, not far from the visitors center, but from it top..

We had just arrived at the telescope, when the operator asked us if we wanted to climb over with him, at sunset .. so, under a torrential downpour … even tropical! (I’ll also tell you about the weather, be patient), we started the adventure! We climbed up with the cab-funicular: a cable from the ground takes you above the telescope, where there are the instruments and the secondary and tertiary mirrors.

LEFT: a view of the primary mirror (300 meters) from inside the dome where instruments are. The dome is the 6-floors-like-building you can see on the RIGHT (from above) and in the FIRST picture.

Once you’re above, with a helmet and a coat (because rains), the fun is get out and climb ladders of metal suspended over the dish and made slippery by water. The goal is to reach the dome, and see the receivers. In one room the most valuable tools for astronomers are concentrated and kept cold: they are placed on a rotating floor, and when you- sitting in the control room on the ground – push a button, the floor moves and puts your receiver at the right position.

It is really impossible to descibe how huge is everything, and how do you feel walking THERE, YOU!

I still cannot figured out how I managed to arrive up there, but sincerely…I do not care. I am just enjoying it at my best…and waiting for a sunny day to take better pictures

so, BIENVENIDOS in Puerto Rrrico, ISLA DEL ENCANTO