Signal: Observatory Archive

Signal is a curated archive of the discoveries that changed what we know about the universe – told through the observatories that made them. Eleven channels. Eleven telescopes. Each one represented by a television set from the era it was built. The 1963 Arecibo dish sits in a walnut-cabinet set from the same year it was carved into a Puerto Rican sinkhole. The 1990 Hubble telescope sits in a widescreen CRT from the same year it launched – flawed mirror and all. The ELT, still under construction on a mountaintop in Chile, sits in a brushed aluminum panel that doesn't quite exist yet. The DSA, 1,650 radio dishes going up in the Nevada desert, sits in a flat panel of its own – on the shelf before its first dish has even gone up. Roman, launched in August 2026 on a quest to map a billion galaxies, sits in a pearl-white panel from the year it left Earth. Tap any television to open its channel. WHAT'S INSIDE Each channel has four tabs: Archive – A curated collection of highlight entries for that telescope. The night the universe stopped making sense. The mirror that was wrong. The first photograph of another world. The sinkhole that became a telescope. More than one hundred entries across eleven observatories, written to be read rather than skimmed. About – The history of the telescope: who built it, why, how much it cost, what it replaced, and what replaced it. Science – What the telescope actually does and what it found. Written for people who are curious, not for people who already have a PhD. Live Feed – A direct link to the telescope's current webcam or live stream, where one exists. THE OBSERVATORIES Arecibo (1963–2020) – Puerto Rico CFHT (1979) – Mauna Kea, Hawaii VLA (1980) – Socorro, New Mexico Hubble (1990) – Low Earth Orbit VLT (1998) – Paranal, Chile Subaru Telescope (1999) – Mauna Kea, Hawaii ISS (2000) – Low Earth Orbit ALMA (2011) – Chajnantor Plateau, Chile Roman (2026) – L2 Orbit ELT (2028) – Cerro Armazones, Chile DSA (2029) – Spring Valley, Nevada NARRATOR Every entry can be read aloud. The intended voice is Daniel (English UK), available as an enhanced download in iOS Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content → Voices. Any installed English voice works. Explore every channel, and SIGNAL has one more thing to show you. The Arecibo channel is free. Unlock all eleven for $1.99.