A very friendly doormat greets our entrance to the SETI's Allen Telescope Array and the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, our first study destination.

Berkeley grad student Garrett begins our tour of the observatory with an up-close inspection of the new dishes.

This scary-looking thing has multiple sized receivers along it to accomodate the wide range of frequencies needed.

Most of the older radio scopes were moved to the White Mountains site, except this one. Mt. Lassen is in back, as a bird (or UFO??) flies over

When using the array to do radio astronomy, the signals from all dishes are sythesized here using interferometry to produce a high resolution radio image. When used to search for E.T., signals are typically added to improve S/N and sacrificing resolution.

Lots 'o fiber optic cables...

In a time vs frequency plot, a true signal from E.T. would look like this one - a diagonal line due to Doppler shifting. No, this one isn't ET, it's the Voyager spacecraft out beyond Pluto. A convenient calibration.

Good advice, if the aliens come calling

The control room, and our group is all smiles

Then, it was time to head south to Mt. Lassen after a brief stopover in camp.

Micro-lecture #2 on Manzanite Lake, with Mt. Lassen in the background. I discuss the relation between the triple junction migration and the Cascade volcanoes

Manzanita Lake: reflections and diagonals

Lilly Pond, rendered bizarre-ly

This shot of Rho Ophiuchi is just two 5 minute exposures between the trees and at very low altitude. On the 8" f/4 with ST4000XCM camera.