ASD Planetarium: 1999 Dieruff Academy Field Experience

ASD Planetarium: 1999 Dieruff Academy Field Experience FEBRUARY 11, 1999: VERY LARGE ARRAY

By 7:30 am we were dressed and trying to get our two groups back on track. By ten a.m. we were continuing on to the Very Large Array (VLA), two and a half hours south of Albuquerque, while the Environmental Cadre conducted water samples of the Rio Grande. The VLA is a series of 27 radio telescopes each of which has a dish diameter of 82 feet. It can potentially function as one large telescope which is 27 miles in diameter.

In radio astronomy, scientists study incoming radio "light" from stars, galaxies and other celestial objects. Radio astronomers have an advantage over optical astronomers in that they can view in nearly any weather conditions, at any time of day or night.

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