Constellations

After hearing this place was being sold on this particular night, and being in Maryland anyhow, we decided to check out the facility before it became no longer.

I'm very happy I got to see this place, the dish was both massive and unique in comparison to other places I've been to. Unfortunately I do have slight case of acrophobia, so when I first saw the dish, I really didn't think I could climb up the small ladder to the very top, I'll admit.

After a little convincing from myself and a fellow explorer, I decided to make the climb... after a few minutes of waiting my mood swung into becoming pumped to go up there!

The climb up consisted of a series of narrow ladders up the side of the base. The first ladder was at an angle and made up the bulk of the climb. A platform circled the base of the structure, then it was straight up from there. The caged in ladder made climbing with my equipment on my back a pain in the ass; I just took my time, gripping the cold steel as tight as I could while the cold wind whipped around me.

A small room full of electronic equipment and cables was at the base of the dish itself, and a small access hole was cut into the bottom to access the "bowl" of the dish. The small ladder into there was freaky in that it jutted out from the concrete base, so under the mesh grill of the ladder is nothing but a straight drop to the ground. Once in the dish, there was not much to see except the night sky, but just laying back at looking up at the stars was a great experience in itself.

This is an abandoned location, there are no safety inspectors or structural engineers checking it's integrity... luckily it was built well and kept strong over the years!