The Arecibo Observatory

Heather Cutler '12 at the Arecibo Observatory, January 2012

St. Lawrence University is a member of the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team, a consortium of 16 institutions engaged in a program sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote undergraduate research within the ALFALFA project.

The Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey is an on-going blind survey of extragalactic neutral hydrogen (HI). The survey uses the largest single dish radio telescope in the world, the 305-meter (1000-ft.) dish at the Arecibo Observatory, in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. When the survey is completed, ALFALFA will have detected more than 25,000 extragalactic HI line sources out to z~0.06.

The NSF has funded a 5-year undergraduate workshop, held at the observatory, in which students and their faculty mentors have the opportunity to operate the telescope, and students present the results of their own research. Students and astronomers from St. Lawrence have attended all the workshops, as well as other observing sessions. Photos from our trips to the observatory are found below.

• 2012 – 5^th ALFALFA Undergraduate Workshop
• 2011 – Remote observing: Controlling the Arecibo telescope from SLU!
• 2011 – 4^th ALFALFA Undergraduate Workshop
• 2010 – Observing run: November 23 – 26
• 2010 – 3^rd ALFALFA Undergraduate Workshop
• 2009 – 2^nd ALFALFA Undergraduate Workshop
• 2008 – 1^st ALFALFA Undergraduate Workshop

• 2006 – First St. Lawrence observing run: November 22 – 25