#magdalena

My hackerfreak Mags tending to herself after receiving an important transmission.

I finished her in time for Art Fight~

Somewhere in the West

Continuing my month long series of posts with images made in New Mexico with the Great Divide as my focus or jumping off point: this is the Very Large Array, twenty-two miles west of Magdalena (and not terribly far from the Divide).

The Array is comprised of 27 operating dishes which are spread out in three directions across the Plains of San Agustin. A corresponding double track railroad runs alongside; the tracks are used by a special device that can lift one of the monstrous dishes (82 feet in diameter), along with its stand, and haul it back and forth, to and from, a huge shop building for servicing. There are 28 dishes total, with one always in the shop. For a sense of scale, note the size of the pickup truck below.

It's intriguing to watch as all the dishes move in unison to point this direction or that. I timed my visit at the end of day thinking I could shoot while the sun set, and a fine New Mexican sunset it was.

The Artemis II mission was happening at that time, and I wondered if it might be involved with that, but know not. The Array was featured in the 1997 film, Contact, but I think it's more about researching quasars and the like rather than listening for intelligent life, but I could be wrong. Go here to read more about this fascinating research site.

Character, book, and author names under the cut

A beautiful sunrise over the Magdalena river in Barranquilla, with the sun peeking from behind the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, the tallest coastal mountains in the world!