On my way to Cloudcroft, I stayed one day in Socorro (elevation 4800 feet). That town is on the Rio Grande on the flat
plains of central New Mexico. The road US 60 climbs west into a first mountain range then passes a second range to reach a vast plateau at elevation
7200 feet. The terrain is completely flat, 44 miles west of Socorro.
The Very Large Array (VLA) has been constructed there. It is made of 27 huge radio telescopes put together along rail tracks shaped as a Y. Depending
on what and how the astronomers want to observe, the telescopes are put further apart from each other or gathered together. When they are in the compact
configuration, the telescopes are all within 0.6 miles of each other. When they are in the extended configuration, the farthest telescope is 13 miles
away from the center of the Y.
The telescopes are recording radio waves coming from space. Radio waves are not bothered by the visible light of the sun or the presence of clouds, so
they can record waves 24/7.
One antenna has a diameter of 25 meters (82 feet) and weighs 209 tons.
The observatory is partially open to the public. There is a small visitor center, and it is possible to take a short walk around the facility. The
trail will take the visitor to the foot of one of those giant radio telescopes, providing a very special and unique view on all the telescopes in the
close distance. The walk is very interesting and impressive.
The antennae are painted in white to reflect as much heat from the sun as possible. If they were not white, the heat absorption would cause the antenna
to expand and contract, which would decrease a lot the quality of the pictures.
I was very impressed by the grandiose sight of those 27 big antennae looking up at the sky, side by side, against a clear deep blue sky with one or
two small white clouds. Some serious astronomy happens there all the time. Part of the movie “Contact” with Jodie Foster was also filmed there.
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