Place to see: The Very Large Array, Magdalena, New Mexico, United States

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The radio telescope array, that many people know from the movie contact.

About this place:

The famous radio telescope array in the New Mexico desert that many people have seen in the movie Contact. It is used primarily for radio astronomy to view radio emitting objects like quasars, supernovas, black holes, and cosmic radiation.

Postcards about The Very Large Array:

  • Eric Hart

    31 March 2008
    From:
    Eric Hart

    My girlfriend and I stopped at the VLA while cruising around southern New Mexico one summer. It's incredibly quiet there; the scope and scale of the antennas is absolutely breathtaking. They move so silently and slowly, at first we thought they were stationary. But then you turn around and find that all the antennae are pointing in a different direction from the last time you looked. It's almost like something out of a ghost story.

  • Michael Menefee

    13 December 2007
    From:
    Michael Menefee

    The VLA is a do not miss for any self-respecting geek. The first time we came during the day and were blown away by the quality of the free museum. There's everything from exhibits a kid could enjoy to detailed accounts on the underlying metric ton of minutia that makes this place tick. Perhaps our more recent trip was even better when we visited under a nearly full moon, allowing us a fantastical night view of the giant antennae spread out across the Plains of San Augstin (see my photo from that night).

Highway 60
Magdalena, New Mexico, 87825 US
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Discovered by Paul Cloutier
on 23 October 2007.
334 views.