Very Large Array

The day after our hike in Chaco, we headed for our next destination: Socorro, New Mexico for a tour and photography shoot at the Very Large Array radio telescope "farm." Thanks to the kindness of National Radio Astronomy Observatories and their Public Information Officer Dave Finley, and the VLA site safety officer Jon Spargo (both friends of Carolyn's) we had access to the array for a late afternoon and sunset shooting opportunity. The VLA is such a fabulous place to photograph we could have spent a week there. As it was, we photographed up until sunset the first day and then spent some time the next day doing some "catchup" photos.

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The VLA by day	The center of the VLA and the north arm of radio telescopes. There are 27 antennas in a Y-shaped configuration. During our visit the array was pulled into its second-tightest configuration.
Another view of the VLA — the north and southwest arms	Here's how the array looks as you drive in on the highway toward the Visitors' Center. The little dish at the far left is a prototype dish for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile.
A view of the southeast arm.	A view of the southeast arm from near the center of the array.
The Very Large Array control room	The famous VLA control room. It was a little more crowded when they were shooting Contact. Everybody there has great stories to tell about the Hollywood Invasions they've experienced over the years.

Carolyn at the VLA

Mark at the VLA

Mark preparing to shoot all-sky images at the VLA

We tried several places to shoot all-skies around the center of the array. Here Mark is waiting for the Sun to move behind a telescope dish. (And yes, we actually went out to shoot two days in a row -- as evidenced by the different shirts he was wearing.)

A VLA all-sky

VLA at sunset	As the sun got closer to the horizon all the pastels of a New Mexico sunset started to play across the landscape and the dishes. The purples darkened and the peaches started to fade.	Another sunset view of the VLA
Dishes against the New Mexico sky.	It seemed like the colors were changing every few seconds. It was hard to capture them all! The last colors before the sky darkened to night.	Darkness descends at VLA