'Close Encounters' at Green Bank, West Virginia

Next summer I’m going to get a job or something.

All my family wants to do this summer is travel.

Now my mom tells me we are going to West Virginia.

I’m 17, so my geography isn’t the best. I pulled up a map on the internet so I could see where we were going.

It just didn’t make sense. I could stay home, hang with the guys, avoid work, and enjoy life. This travel thing just seems to interfere.

Dad’s vacation starts Monday, so my parents and my grandparents and me are going to West Virginia.

You might remember that my grandfather is a Vietnam Vet and has a wooden leg. How the heck is he going to walk around the hills of West Virginia?

That Monday came and we were off. I texted my friends – no fun for a couple of weeks.

Driving with my parents and grandparents, well, it’s like I’m on my own. I’ve got nobody to talk to.

I’m going to skip right to the best part of West Virginia. It is Green Bank.

I’d never heard of it. So probably neither have you.

We were up in the mountains now on Route 28 going north from Lewisburg to Green Bank.

If there is one thing to be said about this section of West Virginia, it is that you don’t drive in a straight line very long.

My dad was fighting the steering wheel, turning this way and that, slowing the car down sometimes to a crawl so he could make a hairpin turn.

Road signs warn of 9 degree declines coming down from the mountains.

Going up it was pretty much the same thing in reverse.

The carbon dioxide level in West Virginia has got to be high because there is nothing but big green trees. You’re surrounded by them, from the tip top mountain tops to the whitewater rafting valleys.

That’s the kind of drive it was to Green Bank. First glance of the observatory brought visions of the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Huge dish antennas. One so big that it would hold two football fields.

As we turned into the entrance to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, my grandfather said, "Pay attention, now Cody, you might learn something."

Always skeptical that learning might be interesting, I just muttered.

It looked like a quasi military outpost, with old powder blue Navy vehicles. And I mean old.

"Those are International trucks," dad said to grandpa.

"From the seventies," grandpa answered back. "And that one’s a Checker."

We parked and went into the visitor center.

Thankfully admission was free, ‘cause I didn’t bring any money.

We were directed to a theater where we listened to facts about the observatory.

First, one of the scientists showed us the effects of cold on atoms, demonstrating that a helium filled balloon would deflate if exposed to cold down below –300 degree F.

When that show was over, a tour guide explained that we would be taking a bus tour to see the many dish antennas. After that there is a hand-on Green Bank Science Center, the Galaxy Gift Shop, and the Starlight Café.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is the home of the world’s largest fully steer-able radio telescope. The telescope collects radio waves emitted by stars, planets, and galaxies in outer space, so they can be mapped and understood.

The telescope is 485 feet tall, taller than the Statute of Liberty. It weighs 17 million pounds. Its surface is 2.3 acres, which would almost hold two football fields.

There is a blackout in the area because electronic devices interfere with the operation of the telescope.

"We even have Radio Police," our tour guide joked, "who go out in the community to find electronic devices that are interfering."

Never one to believe what I am being told, I checked my cell phone. No service.

After answering a few questions, our tour guide led us to a bus in the parking lot.

From the bus, the tour was fantastic.

There were 10 or so telescope antennas.

The guide explained their history and how they scan the skies. Various universities use them in their research.

Finally, we got out of the bus to look at the big guy, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope.

"Your tax dollars at work," my grandpa said to no one in particular.

I took out my digital camera. The tour guide came over quickly and said that electronic devices can not be used near the telescope. Luckily, my grandpa carried a film camera because he hasn’t yet figured out the digital world. I took some pictures with grandpa’s camera, one of which I show here. Look hard because the telescope is hiding in the fog.

If West Virginia is not on your "to see" list, maybe you oughta put it there.

When we get away from this cell phone blackout, I’ll be texting my buddies and telling them all about it.

You can check it out at www.gb.nrao.edu.