Magdalena Ridge Observatory and the VLA

My wonderful host Lisa from NRAO organised us a great day touring observatories. First we stopped on the highest mountain I have ever been on (over 10000 feet) to visit the Magdalena Ridge Observatory.

The telescope has one of the mirrors originally made for the Hubble Space Telescope and moves fast enough to track missiles launched at the nearby White Sands Missile range by the military.

We then headed to the Very Large Array (VLA) and first saw the dishes for the ALMA array in Chile.

The view from the control room was amazing with all the dishes observing one object.

Here is one of the 27 dishes.

Then we got t climb through a dish and dissect it.

Followed by a great steak (yum). Thanks Lisa.