A Very Large Array

This evening I was thinking over some of the highlights of our recent trip. We stopped in Albuquerque, New Mexico for a couple of days. We had dinner with old friend, Bob Vardeman. During our dinner conversation he asked us if we were going to visit the VLA. "VLA?" I asked. "Yes, the Very Large Array. Did you see the movie, Contact, with Jodie Foster?" The penny dropped and I finally knew what he was talking about. We did take his advice and drove the fifty miles west of Socorro. The array of twenty-seven radio telescopes is quite an awesome display. The discs are 82 feet in diameter and standing beside them you feel quite dwarfed. And there is quite an eerie feeling when all of a sudden all the telescopes silently turn a few degrees. Of course they are controlled by an operator in a control room. You can view a gallery of photos at www.vla.nrao.edu It’s worth a look if you are interested. And, of course, you can always rent the movie.