Below is a short video panning along the access catwalk to the 900 ton platform. The triangular frame of the upper platform holds a circular track on which the azimuth arm turns. The azimuth arm is a bow shaped structure 328 feet long. The curved part of the arm is another track, on which a carriage house on one side and the Gregorian dome (installed in 1996). Inside the Gregorian dome two subreflectors (secondary and tertiary) focus radiation to a point in space where a set of horn antennae can be positioned to gather the signal.
The reflector "dish" is 305 m (1000 feet) in diameter, 167 feet deep, and covers an area of about twenty acres. The surface is made of almost 40,000 perforated aluminum panels, each measuring about 3 feet by 6 feet, supported by a network of steel cables strung across the underlying karst sinkhole. There is space between the cables and the ground surface for workers and vehicles. The "dish" is a spherical (not parabolic) reflector .
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