Sunday, June 18, 2006

A day at the VLA

Yesterday turned out to be one of those amazing days which will put a smile on your face that can't be erased. And to show why, I am even posting some photos! We went to the VLA area, all 150 or so astronomers, packed into 3 buses. It was a fairly long trip, through the desert, up and up, (barely noticeable other than through loss of hearing), to a level of 2200 metres. I don't know why a telescope is such a beautiful thing - but it is. When reaching VLA, I glanced backwards, and there was an immense amount of cameras in position. We were divided into small groups, and went on a a tour, which felt really vip. Very Large Array is an array of 27 25-m telescopes, that can be moved into different configurations on railtracks. The only radio telescopes I've seen before are the Onsala 25 and 20 m antennas, so seeing that many of them at the same time was really neat.

 

Isn't it pretty... :) It was a gorgeous day, not too hot due to altitude, but the sun was strong.

 
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We actually climbed up onto one of the antennas! My knees were shaking due to vertigo, but it made it all just so much extra exciting. Sitting there in the dish was a surreal experience, very very amazing... I'll describe this better in a webalbum to come - for now, this is all I can say: wow. WOW! YEY! YEEHAA! :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow!, I really like that view and that place too :)
Looks like the new camera makes better photos than the old one for sure :)
Nothing wrong about Sony, but it was quite old... (fuzzy and so on)

Rob said...

that's fantastic! i'm really excited for you (and a bit jealous, truth be told ;) )

can't wait to see the rest of the photos!

Kraxia Kataraxia said...

Querida, s?n tur att du blev frisk igen och kunde följa med p? that very telescope utflykt!! Det är ju p? sätt och vis häftigare än Mauna Kea, iaf antalet telescope... hur högt var ni?? knappast 4.000 meter va?? Jag är s? rastlös s? jag kan inte koppla av och datorn är kass o alla skäller p? mig för att jag inte är superexpert. Vädret är väldigt fint o idag har Plupp kommit hem fr?n förvisningen till en vind i vasastan.. (LAN, sabes tu...)

Anonymous said...

love the helmet. very cool.

Kraxia Kataraxia said...

Soy muy impressed! (va fsn det nu heter en espanol) hija mia!!! Cerca las estrellas en Nueva Mexico!!! Jag vill g?cka runt mer i USA o se fler stater, har ju bara flugit över de flesta. Vill se Salt lake city och Zion och de andra nationalparkerna och Devils tower i Wyoming osv osv... Donde???