The Arecibo telescope was designed with a triangular platform suspended by steel cables above the dish to support the various instruments used to gather radio signals.
250 pairs of vertical suspender ropes connect the support cables to the suspension bridge. This is part of what enables the bridge to move up and down by nearly five meters.
Every day before he puts this towering machine into motion, John heads up to the crow's nest above the cab to check the crane steel cables and pulleys.
You can imagine the stiffness and rigidity of a gigantic wind-catching dome suspended in the air by narrow steel cables - not an ideal structural arrangement for a sensitive instrument.