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Good Evening Astronomers!

Here we are in Alamogordo, NM, after a day spent driving through part of New Mexico.

We started this morning, as we left Albuquerque, NM around 11.30AM to start driving South towards Socorro, where we originally thought our first stop was.

We wanted to visit the NRAO, that stands for National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

This is the site where the Very Large Array, commonly known as VLA is located, or at least, that's what I thought!

I was wrong, as Socorro probably hosts the administrative buildings, but certainly not the VLA!

I publicly thank the human kind for the scientific progress we made throughout these years that allowed me today to just go on the Internet from my cell phone, search for NRAO online, and find the exact coordinates (34°04′43.497″N, 107°37′03.819″W) to plug in my GPS to finally be able to get there.

The site of the VLA is 60 something miles west of Socorro, and some 20 miles west for Magdalena, which is in fact the closest city.

In total that makes it for a 100 miles side trip out of the way, but trust me, it is worth it.

I don't know, this is one of those places that you know already the way they're going to look like, but still, you need to go see it for yourself, just like the Coliseum, or the Parthenon.

So there we are, at the entrance of the observatory:

NRAO only offers 4 tours a year, but if you want, you can grab one of their brochures, and step out on your own to do the self guided tour.

No need to say we really didn't need any encouragement, as I felt once again like a kid in a candy store! LOL

So here's the first picture:

Through the marked path visitors can read significant information on different aluminum panels, explaining for instance, why NRAO selected that specific site for the antennas, how things work, technical data, etc..

Notice in the next picture the position of the VLA:

As soon as we got to the first one of the several antennas, which is by the way the only one that you can visit, it started moving while we were there!

Apparently they all move at the same time, as the next picture shows you, I thought it was the neatest thing!

The antennas as you can probably see, are arrayed along the three arms of a Y-shape (each of which measures 21 km/13 miles long). Using the railroad tracks that follow each of these arms (look at the next picture) and a specially designed lifting locomotive, the antennas can be physically relocated to a number of prepared positions. They go through all the positions in a 16 months cycle.

Reading the DATA sheet underneath Antenna #6, the visitor can also discover that there are 27 independent antennas, each of which has a dish diameter of 25 meters (82 feet) and weighs 209 tons!


We spent some more time at the NRAO VLA site (including the very interesting Visitor Center), and then left to drive another 150 miles to Alamogordo, NM.

On our way to our final destination we came across the "White Sands Missile Range", does it ring any bell?





Of course, that's where it all started on July 16, 1945, at the Trinity Site.

The site is only open for the public, I believe twice a year. It was such a thrill to be there, although I knew there were another 5 miles separating us from "Ground Zero".

I read extensively about the Trinity Site and the Manhattan Project, so it was really interesting to be there.

And this is the "Been there, Done that, and NOW I prove that to you" picture:

We hoped to get to Alamogordo, NM in time (with day light) to pay a visit to the White Sands National Monument but we didn't make it.

This is a preview of what is going to happen tomorrow, more for fun and curiosity than anything else; we're going through Roswell, NM hoping not to get kidnapped by the aliens!

If they do, please DO NOT pay any ransom, give me the chance to go for another extragalactic journey! LOL

Alamogordo seemed to be pretty "dead" today, but the guy at the reception told us it was pretty normal being a Sunday.

We had dinner at a Chinese place that wasn't as bad as it looked like from the outside (and it was the best choice for the day!), and then we decided to give the White Sands National Monument a try.

Even in the dark, the sand is so white that it almost glow with the moonlight!

I can't wait to get back there tomorrow and take some shots.

We're also ready to leave New Mexico and get to Texas, but we still don't know how far we want to go as it all depends on what we will end up doing tomorrow.

I love it!

Do me a favour this evening: Take a look at the sky. If we can see the same stars, then it means we're not that far apart...

Good night my friends,

Nico