We've received notice that the NRAO telescopes at Greenbank will be shut down at 5pm on Friday if the government shutdown continues. We don't have any immediately scheduled observations there, so this should not affect us in the short term.

We have not yet heard of any impact on Arecibo, but since it is operated under contract rather than being directly operated by the government, we are hoping observations there will continue.

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@SETIEric@qoto.org (Mastodon)

Thanks for the update Doc!

Thanks for the heads-up Eric !
Really appreciated.
Fingers crossed for Arecibo.
The website of the NASA is closed... :(

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Do we receive work from Greenbank? If so is it labeled differently than the Arecibo work?

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Do we receive work from Greenbank? If so is it labeled differently than the Arecibo work?

Not yet. It would have to be labeled differently. The new application isn't written yet. There are differences in the data formats due to the receivers being different, unfortunately the differences aren't trivial. They need funds for a programmer so donate. If you want one of the first work units if/when they become available sign up with Seti Beta.

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<snip> so this should not affect us in the short term.

It sure won't affect us in the long term.

Lots and lots of government folks can't afford to have us figure-out that we really don't need them.

I've lived through a lot of these. My advice is not to hold your breath waiting to find-out what difference it made. In the end, it makes none.

The new 64 m Sardinia Radio Telescope has started operating. A short article in the "Corriere della Sera" says that it shall also be used to search for extraterrestrial intelligence but no details was given. It is operated by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica.
Tullio

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Arecibo will shut down soon if this continues.

The upcoming anniversary of an iconic radio telescope could be tarnished by the ongoing shutdown of the U.S. federal government, as the observatory plans to furlough essentially all of its employees and stop observations by the middle of October.

And the VLA has been shut down already.

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Did Arecibo actually shut down? And have all the telescopes that shut down started up again?

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Arecibo didn't shut down and I checked pages of it, VLA and Green Bank and they are all normal now.

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It sure won't affect us in the long term.

Lots and lots of government folks can't afford to have us figure-out that we really don't need them.

I've lived through a lot of these. My advice is not to hold your breath waiting to find-out what difference it made. In the end, it makes none.

+1

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