While in the Albuquerque area we drove to the VLA. It’s a site of 27 huge radio telescopes out in a flat desert area that is used by various scientists and groups to receive radio signals from the furthest reaches of the universe. Each of the 27 telescopes is pointed at the exact same spot in space and the 27 act as 1 huge dish to receive and amplify the radio signals.
The VLA is not used to listen for alien signals, rather it’s used to get information about black holes, pulsars, nebulea and other cosmic bodies. Anyone can request some time from the VLA, you just submit a proposal with scientific information about why you want to point at a specific place in the universe, and if your request is granted the telescopes will gather information from your specific place for a period of a few hours and send you the data.
The VLA telescopes are set up in three rows that point in three different directions. They are set on tracks, so they can be moved along the three directional arms. There are four configurations that are used, in one the telescopes are as far apart from each other as possible, in one they are close together as possible, and the other two are in between. When we visited it was in the “B” configuration, which means the telescopes were pretty far from each other.
Here are some websites with information and videos about the VLA:
Here are some pictures (the one with flowers was taken off a postcard). In the postcard picture the telescopes are in the configuration where they are as close together as possible. In the closeup picture you can see people near the telescope to get a scope of how big each one is!