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From Chile to Washington

A photographic tour of some of the worlds largest radio telescopes.


The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is funded by the United States National Science Foundation for the purpose of providing radio telescope facilities to the international scientific community. They operate several of the largest and most advanced radio telescopes in the world.

Introduction and History

During my time at NRAO, they operated the four telescopes shown here for the National Science Foundation. As of October 2018, a reorganization placed the GBT and VLBA under a different name. I do not know what the long-term plans are for the organization.

For basic information on Radio Astronomy please see Wikipedia. For an in depth introduction please see Essential Radio Astronomy.

The Very Long Baseline Array

The Very Long Baseline Array, or VLBA, is a network of 10 25 meter antennae spread across the United States and functioning as a single telescope.

The Brewster VLBA station, seen from the north
The Very Large Array

The Very Large Array, or VLA, is a network of 28 25 meter antennae located in central New Mexico.

The VLA, as seen from the edge of a dish.
The Atacama Large Millimeter Array

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array, or ALMA, is an array of 66 12m & 8m antennae located high in the mountains of Chile.

An Alma radio telescope.
The Greenbank Telescope

The Greenbank Telescope, or GBT, is a single 100m x 110m telescope located in the National Radio Quite Zone, West Virginia.

Picture of the Greenbank Telescope

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