Cosmic Roadside Attraction: Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array -

Though I’d love to say that I joined Fox and Scully in the New Mexican desert to discover a mysterious and striking field of giant radio antennae pointing to our dear sky–emitting, absorbing, tracking… The possibility of an intricate and expansive government conspiracy is alluring. But the truth (which is out there) is that these are tremendously powerful telescopes that are watching our Universe, scanning it day and night for radio-emitting celestial objects.

The sight of these 27 “VLA” excite my imagination, but they see far more than my narrow boundaries. That’s because these telescopes see radio waves–invisible light; they see beyond the dust that blankets visible-light telescopes. They are part of the VLA Sky Survey which will gather data for astrophysicists: activities of stars, galaxies, cosmic explosions (supernovae, gamma ray bursts, and the collisions of neutron stars), black hole activity deep within galaxy cores, and magnetic field interactions between galaxies. (source: here and the brochure I picked up at the visitor center)

But c’mon, they just look pretty cool out there. Like an army ready to blow up the Death Star. And I loved to be able to walk about and take their pictures, though I had no idea if I was allowed to at the time. It seemed legit. There were no “No Trespassing” signs, no barbed wire, no patrolling U.S. Government employees.

I walked around conspicuously, making sure I wasn’t trying to hide the fact that I was just a curious photographer. Then I walked through the visitor center and saw the entire area was open for exploration! There were pamphlets, a looping video, a gift shop, a clean bathroom with VLA tiles (see below), and all sorts of interactive displays to peruse. They even encouraged sharing pictures on social media, though they request your mobile phone be on “airplane mode” while on premises.

Even still, it was slightly creepy walking about the VLAs. You can’t just forget that the government does all sorts of secret and horrible things. Now that I know the purpose of these telescopes I now see that it was pretty amazing to stand within a few feet of such powerful instruments. And when one moved its face as I walked by, I now know it was not some nerd on the other end being funny. They simply reposition via motorized drives after they collect enough radio waves from a cosmic radio source. Makes sense.

Can’t I say that this particular one has nefarious intentions? Something related to mind control?

And can I blame these ones for the overall vapid ways of the mass majority? The reason why anyone would ever get a spray tan… why they don’t accelerate into a turn while driving… why they care about celebrities? Yes, these ones here are responsible.

What’s going on in that Milky Way? This thing knows. And I stood by it as it sucked up all the Milky Way gossip. That’s a moment well spent.

I was on my own at the site, but saw a few visitors arriving on my way out. Oh, these showed up in movies: Contact, Independence Day, and Terminator Salvation, as well as a Bon Jovi video. They’re icons of sort.