From: firedraake@earthlink.net (Firedraake)
Subject: [illusions] Alien Search Diary
Date: 29 Mar 1999 06:01:08 -0500
To: illusions@bticc.net

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**************************************************************************
* ATTENTION -- I DID  N O T  WRITE THIS ARTICLE!!!!                      *
*                                                                        *
* Furthermore, I've not read much of the article and my posting it       *
* doesn't mean I believe a word of it.  I just like making contributions *
* from time to time for those who are intersted.                         *
*                                                                        *
* The original article can be found here:                                *
*                                                                        *
* http://www.discovery.com/news/setidiary/setidiary.html                 *
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 Alien Search Diary


 The world's most methodical search for extraterrestrial intelligence
 has resumed at Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory -- home of a
 one-of-a-kind 1,000-foot radio telescope, the most sophisticated
 listening device in the known universe.

 Find out what happens every night from reporter Irene Brown, as she
 tracks the progress of Project Phoenix, sponsored by the privately
 funded SETI Institute.

 Says Irene, the researchers have developed a device that can listen in
 and analyze 28 million channels at once. "What they are looking for is
 a signal that stands out on one frequency alone, like one blade of
 grass standing tall in a field of two billion shoots."

 Read about what they discover below.



 3.26.99

 The cafeteria didn't serve rice tonight. Not that anyone's
 complaining. Two weeks of rice is wearing down the Californians. They
 opt for ham and cheese sandwiches.

 Perhaps the change in diet isn't the best sign of how things are
 going.

 "The observation tonight is less than gratifying," says Seth Shostak,
 who finishes his stint at Arecibo in five days.

 It's not just the problem with Jodrell Bank, the backup telescope in
 England, which probably won't be fixed until Monday at the earliest
 and possibly not until after the SETI folks finish their three-week
 run at Arecibo on April 5.

 What's nagging Shostak tonight is the ongoing problem with radio
 interference. The software that keeps the hunt for ET humming just
 isn't supple enough to block out bands of Earthling chatter.

 "It's too crude," says Shostak. "What's needed is an instrument with
 surgical precision."

 It's another lesson learned for the new system the SETI engineers are
 designing, parts of which will be tested during future runs at
 Arecibo.



 3.25.99

 The hunt for ET is slowing to a crawl. The backup telescope in Jodrell
 Bank, England, is down for repairs for perhaps as long as four days.

 That means the team of scientists and engineers at the Arecibo
 Observatory have to slew the giant telescope back and forth across the
 sky every time a suspect signal is detected. If the signal remains
 after the telescope moves away from the target star, it's not alien
 intelligence, but Earth-based interference that's being picked up by
 the big dish.

 "It wasn't the greatest of nights," says astronomer Seth Shostak.
 "Things started out bad and got worse."

 Earlier in the day, the SETI team replace an amplifier, but the new
 equipment seems to be worse than the old.

 Pioneer 10's daily check-in passes in silence.

 "It's disheartening," says Shostak.

 Then, engineers at Jodrell Bank call in, saying they heard a funny
 noise and were taking the telescope down for a check.

 "I have good news and bad news," reports Kevin Dalley a short time
 later. "The good new is I'm going to Scotland. The bad news is the
 telescope needs a bearing and it may take four days."

 Shostak salvages the day by doing his laundry.



 3.24.99

 Across the Atlantic Ocean, the high winds that forced Jodrell Bank to
 close up Sunday night have died down now, and the British telescope
 has rejoined the search for extraterrestrials.

 Located at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, England, the 76-meter dish works
 in tandem with Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is three times
 its size. Candidate alien radio signals detected in Puerto Rico will
 be verified by the companion telescope in England.

 It's been a quiet night for Kevin Dalley, a SETI software engineer now
 stationed in England. He monitors the automated search for a while,
 then goes to bed, knowing -- hoping -- he'll be awakened by a phone
 call if his colleagues in Puerto Rico find anything interesting.

 Dalley traveled from tropical Puerto Rico to chilly England last week.

 "The food is better," says Dalley, "But the hours are worse."

 With the time difference, Dalley's shift ends at 10 a.m. -- not
 exactly a prime time to to savor English ale.



 3.23.99

 Radio waves streaming in from outer space travel hundreds of trillions
 of miles, but it's the last two miles through Earth's atmosphere
 that's causing problems tonight.

 The back-up telescope in Jodrell Bank, England, has been closed down
 by high winds. Without another ear to the universe, the scientists at
 the Arecibo Observatory have to resort to more cumbersome method:
 Moving the telescope to another star to verify that a signal is real,
 not just interference.

 "It takes twice as long," says Seth Shostak, sounding as close to
 complaining as his eternal optimism will allow.

 Monday, Shostak accompanied two engineers to the 700-ton platform
 dangling in midair about 50 stories above the telescope's dish. They
 ride a cable car to the top, then scramble over beams and cables to an
 odd-looking dome hanging like an insect below the platform.

 While the engineers replace a bad cable on a receiver, Shostak takes
 in the view and snaps some pictures.

 It's a tremendous sight: ocean, mountains, stacks of hills like
 rolling, green waves. Despite the setbacks, the people looking for ET
 feel they're in the right place.



 3.22.99

 The ET hunters are counting their blessings. With help from some
 astronomers who study pulsars -- thought to be rotating neutron stars
 that send out waves of radiation -- the scientists figure out that the
 radio signals they have been monitoring for signs of alien
 civilizations are being processed incorrectly.

 The problem is easily fixed by switching some cables. But the error
 means most of the observations made last week are moot. "Better to
 find out early than late," says astronomer Seth Shostak, who with the
 rest of the SETI team is beginning a second week at the Arecibo
 Observatory.

 Suddenly Shostak interrupts himself. "I've got a confirmation," he
 says. "Two candidates."

 The search for extraterrestrials unfolds without human intervention.
 Computers verify the signal, then instruct the telescope to move to
 another star. If the signal remains, it cannot be ET. If it
 disappears, the telescope will then try to lock on to the signal again
 by returning to its original position. A second telescope in England
 then joins the hunt for verification.

 "I'm sure it's radio interference," says Shostak. "It always is."

 In a few moments, he sees the problem: radars. Jokes Shostak, "If it
 is ET, he's trying to jam NATO."



 3.19.99

 The first week of observation at Arecibo is drawing to an end. Tonight
 the SETI folks are hosting a party at the observatory's pool.

 There is good reason to celebrate. Most of the kinks have been worked
 out of the system the team uses to search for extraterrestrial
 signals. One problem lingers, however: radio interference.

 Transmissions from Earth-based systems can overwhelm radio signals
 from stars. And the Arecibo telescope is a most sensitive ear. The
 scientists are finding even more interference than they did during
 Project Phoenix's last run at Arecibo in September.

 The primary culprit is the U.S. military, which is beginning to test a
 multi-frequency radar nearby to replace their old two-frequency
 system. Telescope operators have met with Defense Department officials
 to try and explain the situation.

 "At best, we're stuck with the same old pair of frequencies (in
 blockage). At worst, we lose more of the spectrum," says astronomer
 Jill Tarter. "We'll just have to wait and see."



 3.18.99

 "We're trying to tell our right hand from our left," says Project
 Phoenix director Jill Tarter.

 Huh?

 Jill's missing her morning jog to figure out if the Arecibo telescope
 and a backup observatory in Jodrell Bank, England, are on the same
 wavelength, so to speak.

 The team looking for alien radio transmissions wants simultaneous
 observations from the British observatory to verify any suspect
 signals. Both sites try to lock on to a known naturally occurring
 source of radio transmissions to check the telescopes' configurations.
 The ability to verify the authenticity of a signal is crucial.



 3.17.99

 "It's finally working," says astronomer Seth Shostak, sounding relaxed
 and pleased near the end of his shift. As he talks, he's watching over
 computer monitors that flicker with data from a sun-like star in the
 constellation Leo about eight light-years away from Earth.

 A software glitch wiped out most of the previous night's work and had
 forced Shostak to spend part of the evening patiently charting sources
 of terrestrial radio interference.

 Then it was on to the stars. Project Phoenix, as the current search
 for ET is called, ultimately will look at 1,000 nearby stars to try
 and discern if artificial signals are riding on their radio waves. The
 team chases a few leads, but they turn out to be radar signals and a
 satellite passing overhead.

 Says Shostak, "For two minutes at least, we had a little bit of
 excitement."



 3.16.99

 Work for the SETI crew at Arecibo begins in earnest after dinner. They
 work a night shift with the telescope, starting in the evening and
 typically ending around dawn.

 After a chicken lasagna and rice dinner, ET-hunter Seth Shostak and
 colleagues turn their attention to the sky. One of their first tasks:
 to look for an old friend.

 Billions of miles from home, the Pioneer 10 spacecraft rises in the
 evening sky. The only known extraterrestrial signal in the universe,
 Pioneer 10 is the watch to which the SETI scientists can set their
 clocks. If the team can pick up Pioneer's call, they'll know their
 equipment is working properly.

 They find it, reports Shostak, but in only one receiver. The SETI team
 uses two receivers to make sure ET isn't making a hoax call.

 Engineers scramble throughout the night chasing technical gremlins.
 Shostak, meanwhile, tunes the receiver to empty space so the SETI
 computers can learn where it's too noisy with radio transmissions to
 even bother looking for ET.



 3.15.99

 The SETI scientists are happy to be back in their telescope control
 room at the Arecibo Observatory after a six-month break. But there's a
 snag.

 Technicians have been preparing equipment for two weeks, but the night
 before the team begins to comb radio waves for signs of
 extraterrestrials, one of four crucial signal detection boards crashes
 and dies. The backup doesn't work either, so an engineer is dispatched
 from Puerto Rico by airplane to work on a replacement in the United
 States.

 In the meantime, Project Phoenix director Jill Tarter wants to survey
 for pockets of interference from Earthly radio transmissions. "They've
 done a lot of work at the observatory to track down their internal
 sources of interference," says Tarter, hopeful that more frequencies
 will be clearer now for any detection of ET's call.

  

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