Barbed wire fencing surrounds the installation to keep out local youths who used to hot-wire golf carts and race them on the ground plane. In the distance, golfers trudge up the lush fairways of the Delaware Golf Club. The fourth green sits only a few hundred yards from the telescope, making the site a curious blend of science and golf. The country club's driving range lies adjacent to the Big Ear. All around the Big Ear, red-striped golf balls rise up like mushrooms.
Long hitters can even drive their golf balls onto the Big Ear's surface.
The volunteer staff meets two Saturdays a month in a tiny office building on the lot. The Big Ear is run by about 15 volunteers, who include a chemist, an optical astronomy buff and an industrial designer, as well as numerous computer whizzes. A few OSU graduate students serve as the paid staff. Dixon, who has been involved since the beginning, defends the continued search for extraterrestrial life. The receiver, currently being installed, will allow the Big Ear to increase its sensitivity by about a thousand times.