The VLA (Very Large Array, Peter's favoritest official acronym ever) of radio telescopes is on a 7,000' plain west of Socorro, New Mexico. The array was built by the the National Science Foundation and is the largest in the world. Seven 25-meter dishes each sit on one leg of a symmetrical Y shape for 21 dishes altogether. Each leg is 13 miles long. The dishes move on rails. As in Florida, the dishes were assembled and are maintained in a large assembly building on the rail system.
The boys covered 759 miles, their second-longest day of driving. They got off to a good start on an 80-mph west-Texas interstate devoid of traffic, but soon enough were doing 55 on two-lane roads in the middle of nowhere. While in the middle of nowhere, Peter made Craig take a video of the radio scanning for stations. The radio just kept looping without finding anything, which Peter found highly amusing for some reason. The NSF sought to put the VLA in the middle of nowhere to minimize radio interference and, according to Craig, they did a fine job. The cell phones did not work for hundreds of miles, and Craig suspects the NSF has a deal with the cell phone companies to stay away from the VLA.They crossed the continental divide soon after leaving the VLA and ended up in Flagstaff.
The VLA (Very Large Array, Peter's favoritest official acronym ever) of radio telescopes is on a 7,000' plain west of Socorro, New Mexico. The array was built by the the National Science Foundation and is the largest in the world. Seven 25-meter dishes each sit on one leg of a symmetrical Y shape for 21 dishes altogether. Each leg is 13 miles long. The dishes move on rails. As in Florida, the dishes were assembled and are maintained in a large assembly building on the rail system.
The boys covered 759 miles, their second-longest day of driving. They got off to a good start on an 80-mph west-Texas interstate devoid of traffic, but soon enough were doing 55 on two-lane roads in the middle of nowhere. While in the middle of nowhere, Peter made Craig take a video of the radio scanning for stations. The radio just kept looping without finding anything, which Peter found highly amusing for some reason. The NSF sought to put the VLA in the middle of nowhere to minimize radio interference and, according to Craig, they did a fine job. The cell phones did not work for hundreds of miles, and Craig suspects the NSF has a deal with the cell phone companies to stay away from the VLA.They crossed the continental divide soon after leaving the VLA and ended up in Flagstaff.
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