If you think you know how tedious downloading digital vacation pictures on a laptop can be, imagine sifting through 800 terabytes of files from the furthest reaches of the Universe.

Chances are that much data would tie up your Internet connection for the next several years. That is unless you have a super high-speed Internet2 connection, like the one the Arecibo radio telescope installed in late 2001. Since then, this fattest of fat pipes has fundamentally changed the way the telescope is used and by whom.

Which is to say they have a very fast, very robust connection to the cutting edge Internet2 network; the ultra-fastest of ultra-fast networks that remains the sole domain of research universities and the military.

In the past, using the Arecibo telescope, the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world meant researchers had to make the long trek into the jungles of Puerto Rico. As with most telescopes, Arecibo is located as far as possible from civilization in order to reduce the electromagnetic interference and "pollution" leaked out by large communities.

As shown in the film "Contact" life at Arecibo -- as with any major observing site -- can be almost monastery-like in its remoteness. But until the telescope's Internet upgrade the only way to access the large amounts of data collected in a reasonable time span was by being on site. The telescope's ability to gather 40 megabytes per second far outstripped its meager phone company-provided Internet connection.

That began to change in late 2001 when Arecibo was granted its new connection by the National Science Foundation.

"Remote observing is actually done fairly regularly now," said Venkataraman.

This change has made some new demands on Venkataraman and his department, as they learn to assist scientists working in other time zones in real time.

"The interface (for controlling the telescope) had to be made more robust," Venkataraman told SPACE.com. "Remote observing usually follows on some direct experience on site. Typically, we recommend that they visit or at least work with someone who has visited. Someone who understands the (telescope's data)."

Ideally, an experienced researcher should have access to just about all the telescope's functions, he explained.

"The researcher sits at their university office, or even at home, and gets a secure connection over their ISP. Then brings up the observing interface and can control the telescope."

This real-time ability to control the telescope has also allowed much faster response time.

"There's one other thing about this telescope, not just astronomy, it can also transmit," says Venkataraman, Arecibo has the capability to function as a massive radar dish. In the past, this has allowed astronomers to study the makeup of objects like asteroids that are too dark, too distant, or shrouded with comet dust to be visible.

However, small bodies like these often pass by the Earth very quickly, Venkataraman explained. "Some of them you don't have much time between the discovery of the asteroid and visibility. These are 'targets of opportunity.'"

Now a remote observer, with the assistance of someone on-site at the dish, can scan a newly-discovered near-Earth object within a few hours of its first appearance.

The speed of an Internet2 connection has opened up new ways of using Arecibo that would have been impossible before.

For starters, Venkataraman said the Arecibo team is hoping to contribute to the worldwide Astrophysical Virtual Observatory (AVO).

"We do hope to contribute to the virtual observatory where you pool the data from various instruments in standard formats in huge data archives," Venkataraman explained.

Sponsored by the European Space Agency, NASA and the space programs of other countries, the AVO would create a kind of massive "warehouse club" of astronomy data under one virtual roof. Arecibo's Internet2 connection should allow it to be a major player in that effort. Early next year, Arecibo is planning on a major undertaking of its own.

"One of the things we're planning on doing in early 2004 is a large survey," he said.

"These surveys -- they're really large. Some other telescopes are going in for equivalent surveys as well. It will take several years of course, and the data would be pooled and archived," and made available online for researchers to "mine."

Arecibo's planned data collection for the project will likely dwarf most other surveys, and stretch its Internet2 connection to the limit.

"We're 800 terabytes," said Venkataraman, which is the same as 819 gigabytes, or about 840 million megabytes. A lot of vacation pictures.