GREEN BANK, W.Va. — The Green Bank Observatory in Pocahontas County has resumed SETI tours of the facility for the summer.
SETI is an acronym for Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence and serves as an insider tour to some unique parts of the facility which are not often seen by the general public.
Jill Malusky, public information officer with the observatory, said the SETI tours are much different than the regular tours given to the general public each day.
“A SETI tour is different because we only offer those once a month, select months of the year. They last 90 minutes and you’re with a much smaller group,” she explained.
The tour includes a visit to an historic Tatel telescope on the observatory’s 3,000 acre campus which was used years ago by Frank Drake in his historic search for intelligent life in the universe.
“You get to actually go inside the control room of that telescope. It’s the only time you can get in as a visitor,” she added.
The tour also includes a visit to another 140-foot telescope used by Jill Tarter’s Project Phoenix. Her project was the basis for the movie “Contact.” You’ll also get to visit the GBT control room for a behind-the-scenes peek at the operations for the world’s largest fully-steerable radio telescope and a visit to the famous Drake Lounge which is typically reserved for scientists and other researchers.
“If you’re a member of the general public you don’t get to go in there. It’s a really nice meeting space that Frank Drake used for a really famous conference back in the day called the ‘Order of the Dolphin.’ It’s actually where they came up with what’s called the Drake Equation and Carl Sagan was a member of that group,” Malusky added.
The tours are $40 and must be reserved ahead of time on the Observatory’s website.