VLA by Moonlight

[Michael Lloyd]

One dish of 27 at the Very Large Array. Lit by the moon. The challenge is getting a shot where the dish isn't moving.

1DsMKIII
14mm f2.8L

300 seconds
f5.6
ISO = 100

[Alfred Forns]

..... and the other is having first hand knowledge of the train schedule :)

I like stars streaking across the sky. Could you make the dish larger in frame and still keep it sharp? Neat !!

[Michael Lloyd]

Hey Alfred, Thanks. Those are actually the tracks that they use to move the dishes. They only move them a few times a year. I've got a bunch more shots from the day and a few more night shots. I'm on the road back from Bosque so it will be a little while before I can repost.

[Alfred Forns]

Are those the ones clsoe to Socorro? I know there is VLA close by In all the times I've been there never have looked it up !!! Have a safe trip !!

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Michael,
Is this what they use to call ET...:eek::D The composition is superb. I like the stars and the color of the sky...well done...:cool:

[Michael Lloyd]

Al- Yes. They are about 50 miles west of Socorro. The VLA (Very Large Array) is pretty impressive. There are 3 arms and each arm has 9 dishes. The max distance from the center to the last dish is 13 miles. The funny thing is that it doesn't look that far.

Gus- Nope... the array is a radio telescope. They "see" radio waves.. no transmissions from the VLA

I wish ya'll could see my buddy Russell's shot. He went the extra mile and it is incredible.

[Lana Hays]

Michael
What an interesting image. I photographed the VLA last year in early light as I see it every year when I head up into the mountains as I'd never taken the time before. I had thought about doing a night image....perhaps star trails with one but was afraid that there might be an issue of being there in the middle of the night so I opted for an early morning version. I like this one very much.

[Michael Lloyd]

Lana- The only thing that we had to contend with was a little traffic. That wasn't an issue for the shot above since we were next to the fence but when we were testing the setup from the parking lot across the road we had a couple of images that had streaks through them from the lights of trucks passing through :) We also had some shots ruined by movement of the dish. I don't think we could have asked them to "hold up a sec... or 300" so we worked around it. We visited the array during the daylight hours so we had a pretty good feel for how they were about what what wanted to do. We chose the dish out by the road and we made sure not to cross any property lines. My biggest regret was taking only a 14mm lens with me. I had originally thought that we could get closer and place the moon more at our back but the fence and the sign on it changed our mind. If you can, it's best to plan to go during a full or nearly full moon.

Here's a shot of the "mover" and the "storage building". They have better names for them :)

[Alfred Forns]

Thanks for the info !!! Very neat and will check them out !!!

[Julie Kenward]

I love the way the traintracks lead your eye right to the dish. Wonderful image, Michael.

[Robert Amoruso]

Great comp and technique for a unique image. Nice work.