The Very Large Array
Did you ever see the 1997 movie Contact? (I saw it eleven
times when it was playing in theaters; that might suggest what I
thought of the film!) If you did, you might remember that Elaine
Arroway (the character played by Jodie Foster) first detected the
signal from Vega while conducting her SETI search at the Very Large
Array west of Soccoro, New Mexico.
The VLA is a real radio telescope installation, not something created
from the imagination of Hollywood. The National
Radio Astronomy Observatory has an excellent VLA
website with information about the history and operations of
the VLA. I won't repeat their excellent information here. Instead,
this page recounts some visits to the VLA that I made during 1999
and 2000.
For the more technically photo-minded of my readers, the pictures
on this page were all taken before I'd become involved with digital
photography. My camera of choice at the time was a Nikon F3.
 During
my first visit to the VLA, in September 1999, I was driving
west on US 60 from Soccoro. By itself, this is a very pictureseque
route that runs from the Rio Grande valley up into the Plains
of San Augustine, and through parts of the Cibola National
Forest.
After passing through the town of Magdalena, I knew I was
getting close to the VLA site. Some miles west of Magdalena
I crossed over a little hill and there in the distance was
of the antennas making up the southeast arm of the VLA. It
was my first glimpse of the complex, and I was very
excited.
So I stopped and took this, my very first photo of the VLA.
(Taken using the F3 and my 500mm Reflex Nikkor lens.)
Aside from the antenna itself, the photo gives a good impression
of the open, undeveloped space that I find so appealing about
the American southwest. Having spent most of my life in Los
Angeles, I can't get enough of wide-open space like this! |
 This
is my favorite photo from among my visits to the VLA site.
It was also taken during my first visit to the VLA, when
the array was in its "A" configuration, where the
individual antennas are most widely spread out.The distance
from the closest antenna, in the foreground, to the farthest
antenna is about 11 miles!
I took this photo was also shot with with the 500mm Reflex
Nikkor lens. One of the few photo opportunities where my Dimage7
(even if I'd had it at the time) just wouldn't have cut the
mustard! |
 Taken
during my second visit to the VLA, in April 2000. This view
is looking down the southwest arm of the array, which I believe
was in the "C" configuration. (A maximum antenna separation
of about 2.2 miles.) |
 Another
picture from the April 2000 visit. This view was taken from
the same position as the photo above, but looking towards the
center of the array. |
 I
wasn't the only tourist at the VLA that April! |
 The
parabolic dish of the antenna focuses incoming signals to this
assembly. There may be signal receivers in this assembly, but
the curved component at the bottom of the assembly reflects
and focues some sigansl back to... |
 ...these
receiver elements at the bottom of the dish. |
Antenna Assembly Building and Transporter
 The
Antenna Assembly Building (AAB) is the barn in which the
antennas were originally constructed and where they are
brought for periodic maintenance and repair.
The AAB fascinates me for some reason I can't explain.
(Heck, it's just a big building that's missing a wall!)
But the AAB doesn't get any attention on the VLA's official
web site, so I though it would be fun to give it a little
attention here.
If you look closely in the foreground of this photo, you'll
see a set of railroad tracks that lead into the AAB. Notice
that there is a second set of railroad tracks that
intersect at right angles.
This second set of tracks is the railway for the
southwest arm of the array. I point this feature out because
it ties into the following two photographs...
|
 In
the foreground is one of the two transporter vehicles that
are used to move the antennas around the complex. (The VLA
has two such transporters; the second can be seen parked just
in front of the AAB.)
The transporters roll on parallel standard-gauge rairoad
tracks. Each arm of the VLA consists of one such railway.
At various points along the main railway are spurs that branch
off at right angles to the individual antenna mount locations.
The transporter works by rolling underneath an antenna. Hydraulic
jacks on the transporter then lift the antenna off of its
mounting piers and the transporter and antenna combination
then roll away to the next stop. |
 Another
view of the transporter. Sorry, but I haven't a clue as to
which end is the "front" and which is the "back"!
Here's something fascinating that I hope to see someday:
as I mentioned, there are short spurs that lead from the antenna
locations to the main railway of each arm. The spurs intersect
the main railway at sharp, 90-degree angles, just as you might
have noticed in the photo of the AAB, above.
If we take the southwest arm as an example, suppose a transporter
is bringing an antenna back to the barn for repairs. Once
the transporter reaches the intersection you see in the AAB
photo, how does it change directions?
The only thing I can figure is that there are hydraulic jacks
on the bottom of the transporter that lift the entire
vehicle off the ground enough so that the wheel assemblies
can now be rotated 90 degrees to match the orientation of
the spur! I would definitely like to watch the movement of
an antenna someday so I can see, firsthand, how this is performed! |
 My
attempt to be a little bit "arty" with the camera;
one of the southwest arm's antennas framed underneath the transporter. |
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