The area is a vast area of desert, ringed by mountains in the distance. It's immense and wild .... but then ....
As you enter the plains, you can see the 27 radio antennas in the distance, and as you get closer it is an astounding sight to see! To me it was surreal, seeing all these huge antennas pointed at the sky. (I felt like I was viewing a scene from X-Files or the movie Contact.) To see all this super-technology way out in the middle of nowhere is just an amazing sight.
The Very Large Array (VLA) is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The 27 antennas are arranged in a gigantic Y formation, and the images from all of them are combined into one huge picture of galaxies, stars, quasars and other events in space. I don't understand all of it, but I understand more than I did before I visited the visitor center last Saturday, when the NRAO was hosting an open house at the facility.
The Very Large Array -- just another one of New Mexico's interesting sights and relatively unknown treasures.
