GUIYANG, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Decades-old vintage film cameras have come back in vogue in the radio-quiet zone of China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), dubbed as the "China Sky Eye."
A core area of the radio-quiet zone within a 5-km radius have been set up, with all modern electronic devices such as digital cameras and mobile phones banned to avoid electromagnetic interference by human activities.
FAST attracts up to 2,000 visitors every day who climb up to the observation tower to have a panoramic view of the telescope. Anyone who wants to take a selfie with telescope is only be allowed to use film cameras.
"We now have 72 Nikon F3 and F2 film cameras for rent," said Liu Chen with a local base for science education of FAST. According to Liu, all film rolls will be taken to the darkroom for flushing before uploaded and emailed to visitors.
Shutterbugs are also encouraged to take their own film cameras that have a battery capacity within the 3-mA allowable range.
Remote sensing was launched in the radio-quiet zone in last November to ensure the operation of FAST will not be affected by the electromagnetic environment.
Located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in southwest China's Guizhou Province, the world's largest single-dish radio telescope has identified 96 new pulsars since October 2017.
