The Very Large Very Large Array

Over Veterans Day weekend Donna and I took a New Mexico road-trip. This is the first of a few photo essays from our travels.

The Very Large Array, one of the world’s premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter.

NRAO Very Large Array

Click on any image for a larger — and better — version or an album of all five.

Looking into the sky almost directly overhead.
Nearly as wide as a baseball diamond — 82 feet from edge to edge.
Each of the 27 antennas can be positioned at various intervals along the three nine mile tracks of the Y. A transport device slides under each antenna to move it to its new base.
The gears as the antenna was changing its angle. The movement was slow, but perceptible, and all 27 moved in unison, like the Rockettes.
Like large sombreros, the antennas now perfectly aligned at a rakish tilt.