Annesley-Ross Tower

The Annesley-Ross Tower

The Annesley-Ross “control tower” and the Tillinghast Radio Telescope are loosely modeled on the Parkes Observatory and the Murriyang Dish in New South Wales, Australia.

The Music of the Spheres
The GPCA’s radio telescopes were created by Kevin A. Ross and first described in The Stars Are Right, pp. 107–109 [120–122], which includes an interior map drawn by Tony Santo. The Bible Black version takes modest liberties with the original layout, and is described below.

History

Beginning life as the Hayden Radio Observatory, the Annesley-Ross Tower (ART) is a sturdy, round structure made from Indiana limestone and topped with a 50-meter radio antenna. Designed in 1959 and completed in 1963, the tower reflects the art deco design of the Swezey-Minnich Observatory. After the site was selected for the GPCA in 1969, the tower was remodeled to accommodate its new role controlling the 22-dish interferometer. From 2009–2010 Director Sarah Potter (2007–2012) oversaw renovations designed to “bring the GPCA into the twenty-first century,” at which time the limestone was refinished and the catwalks and fire escape replaced. It was renamed the Annesley-Ross Tower, with the Hayden Radio Telescope becoming the Tillinghast Radio Telescope. (See “Location—GPCA Overview” for details.)

Layout

The Annesley-Ross Tower has four floors, although the upper catwalk surrounding the base of the Tillinghast Radio Telescope and may be considered a fifth story in itself.

First Floor

Foyer & Atrium
The glass doors of the Annesley-Ross Tower open onto a triangular foyer fronting a three-story atrium. A door on the foyer’s left wall leads directly to the Brendan Lounge, while the right wall is occupied by a framed print of Mina Loy’s Stars.

The atrium was renovated in 2010, and has a comfortable, Scandinavian/Apple Store appearance marked by blonde wood, anodized aluminum, and smooth white plastic. The walls are decorated with photographs of the GPCA ranging across a half-century of history. The refurbished windows supply ample daytime lighting.

The atrium offers several comfortable chairs, a couch, and a brushed aluminum table covered with astronomy magazines. A spiral staircase winds up the atrium, and a large elevator is positioned at the far end.

A surprisingly funky lighting fixture depends from the atrium ceiling. A canted ring of frosted-glass tubes, it’s vaguely reminiscent of the UFO from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and had been dubbed “the mother ship.”

The Kevin Ross Library
The ground floor’s largest room is the Kevin Ross Library, named after the first director of the Swezey-Minnich Observatory, a man who was “rarely seen without a book in his hand.” (“Which he would then drop,” as the joke is often told.) The Library holds thousands of books, journals, and magazines relating to the physical sciences. There’s also numerous science-related biographies, Nebraska and University-related histories, and an entire shelf of “popular science” books from Brian Cox, Richard Dawkins, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, Brian Greene, Michio Kaku, Carl Sagan, Dava Sobel, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Other nonfiction includes Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff, Dennis Overbye’s Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, Emily Levesque’s The Last Stargazers, and two copies of But It Was Fun: The First Forty Years of Radio Astronomy In Green Bank. One of these copies has an embossed half-title page: “From the Library of Ruth Swann.”

Fiction
A substantial bookcase near the inner wall is stocked with science fiction books, mostly donations from past astronomers and array operators. These include classics from Olaf Stapledon, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula K. LeGuin, Frank Herbert, and Robert Heinlein; 80s cyberpunk from William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Walter Jon Williams; and more recent novels from Greg Bear, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Cixin Liu, and Jeff VanderMeer. (There’s also some paperbacks by J.G. Ballard, Robert Delaney, William S. Burroughs, Phillip K. Dick, and Stanisław Lem, all stamped “From the Library of Freddie Pike.”) The collection offers a few more highbrow selections, including Jorge Luis Borges’ Ficciones, Franz Kafka’s Complete Stories, Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum, James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, and Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon. (The Joyce appears untouched, and was left here by a visitor who initialed the book “ABR.”) The most recent additions are an autographed copy of David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks donated by Ruth Swann, Michael Cisco’s Unlanguage left by Leo Sawyer, and Kobo Abé’s The Box Man and Hiroko Oyamada’s The Factory, both contributions from Jenny Hooper.

Lending System
The Ross Library has no formal lending system, but a whiteboard near the door is used to record “check outs.” Along with a dozen journals and scientific texts in circulation, three novels are currently on loan from the collection. C.T. Guest borrowed Burroughs’ Cities of the Red Night on December 10, Mason Dauterive took Ballard’s The Drowned World on January 12, and Diane Mancini borrowed Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow on February 14. It’s well known that Gerald Neal and Harlan Bennett never use this board, and just take whatever they need.

Computer Lab
The computer lab contains four aging workstations networked to the mainframe. (Because all key personnel now carry laptops, these computers have the aura of ancient relics.) The lab features a pair of laser printers, a photocopier, a scanner, a FAX machine, and a more recent acquisition—a Bambu 3D lab printer. Installed last year by Michael Beckmann, the unit hasn’t seen much use, but Beckmann remains hopeful a few professional development workshops will encourage the scientists to recognize its utility. Having said that, it’s currently printing out an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator for Mason Dauterive.

Slop Wall
A few years ago, a new “tradition” began in the computer lab called the “Slop Wall.” Astronomers, operators, and techs compete to produce the funniest—and most cringeworthy!—“AI slop,” which is printed out and thumbtacked to the wall. Every so often people anonymously raise or lower the printouts in a kind informal of rating system. Once an image has achieved “top-tier” status for more than four weeks, it’s taken down and commemorated in a binder located in the toner cabinet.

The current three top-tier images depict Marvin the Martian blowing up the Salad Bowl with his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, an SMO “Flashback Disco” populated by Lizard People, and a Quidditch player who bears a striking resemblance to Director Neal. He’s dressed in the blue and cranberry colors of the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and sports the crest of the Horned Serpent. The caption reads, “Neil Picquery, Director of the Greylock Mountain Horcrux Array (GMHA) 1812–1825.” It’s unlikely Neal has seen this image, as he rarely pays the wall a second thought; it’s also widely believed to be the creation of Dr. Diane Mancini.

The Lower Lounges
Renovated the same time as the atrium, the tower’s lower lounges are cozy and spacious, and contain furniture, tables, vending machines, coffeemakers, refrigerators, and cabinets full of magazines, games, and puzzles. Each lounge features a wall-mounted 45” flat-screen connected to a cable box equipped with a wide spectrum of programming. A “NO WI-FI OR BLUETOOTH” sign reminds employees to connect laptops to the television and Internet using HDMI cords and Ethernet cables. The artwork in each lounge was largely selected by Director Potter, but she included a few pieces from a 2008 poll of staff suggestions.

The Brendan Lounge
The lounge directly accessible from the foyer is called the Brendan Lounge. The walls are decorated with framed prints of M.C. Escher, Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Dorothea Tanning, Marie “Toyen” Čermínová, and Remedios Varo; along with a black-and-white photograph of GPCA megadonor “Commodore” Perry Legrasse Brendan taken during the construction of the communications tunnel.

The Tarter Lounge
The larger of the two lounges is accessible through a door beneath the spiral staircase. Named the Tarter Lounge, the walls are decorated with more “cosmic” art than the Brendan Lounge, and include works by Zdzisław Beksiński, Chesley Bonestell, Chris Foss, Cathrin Machin, Robert McCall, Helen Pashgian, and Lucian Rudaux. A framed black-and-white photograph of Jill Tarter hangs by the door. The television is connected to a PlayStation 5, and a folding tray contains a round, 1000-piece puzzle of Mars being assembled by Dr. Mancini and Jenny Hooper.

Second Floor

Conference Room 1, “Karl Jansky”
The GPCA’s main conference room contains a modern conference table surrounded by sixteen chairs, a flat-screen television on a wheeled cart, and a small refrigerator stocked with bottled water, cans of soda, and a few “emergency beers.” The room is decorated with photos of famous radio telescopes from around the world—Green Bank, Arecibo, the VLA, Canberra, Jodrell Bank, Effelsberg, ALMA. Professor Jansky watches over the room from a framed photo hanging by the door. Taken in 1933, it shows Karl Jansky standing by his “Merry-Go-Round” radio antenna at Bell Labs.

Conference Room 2, “Jocelyn Bell”
The Jocelyn Bell Conference Room is a scaled-down version of the Jansky with accommodations for eight people. Its walls are decorated with color photos of radio images, along with photographs of the ongoing telescope construction for the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) project, including the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia and the Karroo Array Telescope (MeerKAT) in South Africa. The famous 1968 black-and-white photograph of Jocelyn Bell at Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory hangs by the door.

Visitor’s Office
The visitor’s office on the second floor contains a comfortable chair and desk, a telephone, a coffeemaker, and equipment to hook a laptop to the mainframe. The walls are decorated with astronomy photographs that date back to the 1990s. There’s also a framed photo of Carl Sagan speaking on the telephone in this very office. When VIPs are scheduled to occupy the room, it’s customarily decorated with fresh flowers.

Staff Office
The staff office contains four cubicles and workstations intended for on-duty astronomers and array operators. The walls are covered with star charts, radio maps, and computer printouts. The office’s most frequent inhabitants are Dr. Mancini and Mason Dauterive, both of whom have personalized their cubicles with various knick-knacks. Mancini’s borrowed copy of Gravity’s Rainbow sits on her desk; the bookmark is “stalled” on page 61. Her coffee mug features an illustration of astronaut Gus Grissom above his famous comment, “DO GOOD WORK!”

Mason’s desk is recognizable from its general clutter, along with a framed 1971 photograph of Frank Zappa in Czechoslovakia. There’s also a black-and-white photograph of Mason arm-in-arm with two smiling women in front of the SMO. All three are dressed in 70s disco fashions. The back of the photo is marked by a grease pencil, “10-31-23 W. Rideout.” A search through Mason’s drawers finds typical office supplies, including dozens of stacks of Post-It notes. It also uncovers a bag of 10-mg THC gummies, a Rush R40 laser-pointer keychain, and small notebook with a Residents sticker on the cover. The notebook is filled with incomprehensible scribbles forming bizarre—but by now, familiar?—patterns.

Mason’s Notebook
Flipping through Mason’s notebook costs 0/1 Sanity points, with a lost point becoming a Ghroth Point. If Mason is shown the notebook, he believes it contains intelligible commentary—“Hey, that’s my personal notebook! What are you doing with it!?” It requires a successful Persuade roll to urge Mason look “closer,” which triggers a Sanity roll. If he fails, he continues to see his “notes.” If he succeeds, he discovers that he’s recorded nothing but meaningless scribbles! This realization forces Mason to make a Ghroth Resistance roll. A failure forces him to persist in his delusion, and may trigger a Ghroth-related episode. A success alerts Mason to his mental deterioration, and may result in lessening his antipathy towards the characters. (See “NPC—Mason Dauterive” for details.)

Director’s Office
The Director’s office emerged from Potter’s renovations as a comfortable space furnished in a light, Scandinavian style. Dr. Neal hates it, and longs for the old-school “mahogany and leather” vibe from the original HRO. Having missed out on the professorial décor of his predecessors, Neal has adopted a slightly controversial mid-century affectation: a portable minibar stocked with bourbon, Scotch, brandy, Cognac, and tawny Port. (Mason calls it his “Mad Men bar.”) The walls are hung with photographs of former directors, including Kevin Ross, Ambrose Tillinghast, Henry Annesley, Winston St. John Lowell, K. Perotine Jekyll, and Neal’s immediate predecessor, Sarah Potter. His desk drawer contains a set of keys for the Swezey-Minnich Observatory.

Third Floor

Annesley Lounge
Unlike the “lower” lounges, the Annesley Lounge retains its unreconstructed 70s glory. Named after Henry Annesley, the first director of the GPCA (1972–1986), the lounge has a peculiar appeal, having passed from “hopelessly outdated” to “retro chic” back in the 90s, and then from “no, actually outdated” to “no, actually, super-cool and authentic” again this past decade. The walls are decorated with original photos of the site’s history, from the Hayden Prairie Trust to the Swezey-Minnich Observatory to the HRT dish to the construction of the GPCA. A black-and-white photo of Henry Annesley standing in front of the SMO hangs on the wall near the door. Because the Annesley Lounge lacks a television set and includes an extremely comfortable sofa, it’s mostly used for quiet reading and cat-napping. (Jenny stores a pillow in the lounge’s small closet.)

Storage
The storeroom contains everything from extra reams of paper to cleaning supplies. There never seems to be enough Post-It notes, though.

File Room
This is where the GPCA’s files are stored. The room contains dozens of cabinets and bookshelves overflowing with reports, computer printouts, CD-ROMS, and binders—so many binders! The documents include everything from requests for pointing time to labor contracts from the 2009–2010 renovations. To conserve space, some of the more antiquated documents have been relocated to the SMO. In 2007, Director Louck launched an effort to digitize the entire archives of the GPCA, an ongoing project that usually occupies a pair of summer interns.

Server Room
Renovated in 2009, the server room is the heart of the facility’s data-driven life support system, and contains all the humming machines, redundant drives, and blinking lights one might expect. The room is generally unlocked, but an “Authorized Personnel Only” sign hangs on the door, complete with a picture of Mongomery Scott holding a phaser. (Neal, Bennett, and Beckmann are the only “authorized” people on site. Knowledgeable visitors and PIs must receive approval from Bennett before being granted access.) A Hard Computer Use roll determines that everything inside is working exactly as it should.

Control Room
The control room is where the array operators direct the radio telescopes, select frequencies for observation, and collect and record data. Renovated in 2010, the room contains modern computers, monitors, and printers, and offers a stunning view of the array outside. There are several telephones and a recharging rack for the Kenwood two-way radios used to communicate in the field. The most recent addition are four Klipsch bookshelf speakers, one mounted at each ceiling corner. They’re wired to a Yamaha receiver connected to select computers by gold-plated audio cables.

Decorations
As one might expect, the walls of the control room are covered with science posters, technical illustrations, and humorous images such as XKCD comics, the classic “peer review car” comic from Red Pen/Black Pen, and a photograph of Steve Martin holding a fake Time magazine proclaiming, “Send More Chuck Berry!” The workstations are personalized with tchotchkes, mostly drawn from geek culture: a Captain Picard action figure, a Carl Sagan bobblehead, a plastic TARDIS with David Tennant’s Doctor confronting a Dalek, Futurama and Rick & Morty paraphernalia, a framed photograph of Laura Palmer, Funko-Pop! figures of Kang and Kodos, Pokémon balls, various anime figures fished from gachapon machines, Star Wars Lego spaceships, an “I WANT TO BELIEVE” magnet, a battery-operated PKE meter, a plushie Cthulhu doll; and of course, Mason Dauterive’s Funko-Pop! figures of the progressive rock band Rush.

The Controls
It requires several weeks of training to successfully understand and operate the controls for the GPCA telescopes. However, if push comes to shove, they may be successfully manipulated with a Hard Astrophysics roll followed by a Hard Computer use roll.

The Nemesis Workstation
One of the control room workstations is powered down, and has an “OUT OF ORDER” sign taped to the monitor. This is the so-called Nemesis workstation, where the scientists and operators involved in the Nemesis Project store and manage all Nemesis-related data. The workstation is protected by a password (currently “S@LtP3t3r000237!”) and a selective firewall that allows the workstation to freely access the mainframe, but not to transmit any of its own proprietary data to that mainframe. Devised by Harlan Bennett after the death of Ruth Swann, this system ensures the GPCA “public records” do not include any Nemesis data. (Dr. Bennett also scrubbed the old data from the system, and has devised a way to fill the missing gaps with plausible “noise.”) Only three laptops are allowed to access the Nemesis data—Gerald Neal, Harlan Bennett, and Jenny Hooper. (For accessing or hacking this workstation, see “Faction—Nemesis Team.”)

Fourth Floor

The Tillinghast Radio Telescope
The entire fourth floor is taken up by the machines that drive the Tillinghast Radio Telescope, commonly called the “Salad Bowl.” The TRT features a 50-meter diameter mesh outer layer with a 30-meter diameter perforated aluminum inner plating. Similar to the Murriyang Telescope at Parkes Observatory, the entire dish is “steered” using a sophisticated array of machinery built into the roof and surrounded by a lower and upper catwalk. In 2010 the telescope was named after Ambrose Tillinghast, the first director of the Shiloh Hayden Dual Observatory.

The Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales

Sources & Notes

The Annesley-Ross control tower and the Tillinghast Radio Telescope are loosely modeled on the Parkes Observatory and the Murriyang Dish in New South Wales, Australia. The photographs of the control room are actually of the VLA control room in New Mexico, and were borrowed from the NRAO “About the array operators” page. The image of the Lizard Disco and “Commodore” Perry Legrasse Brendan were created using Google Gemini 2.5.

Bible Black > Locations
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Author: A. Buell Ruch (Based on work by Kevin A. Ross)
Last Modified: 9 November 2025
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
Bible Black PDF: [TBD]