Page 2 of 2
These are photo's
of the 82' VLBA dish at St Croix.
The Very Long Baseline
Array (VLBA)
Lori and I took a
drive to the most eastern end
of the island on
Christmas Eve day to view the
BIGGEST DISH I have
seen in person.
The
VLBA is a system of ten identical radio telescopes
controlled
from a common headquarters and
working
together as the world's largest dedicated,
full-time
astronomical instrument.
The
ten telescopes are located at stations
ranging
from the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean
to
Maui Kea on Hawaii,
A
distance of more than 5000 miles.
This
instrument offers scientists the most detailed
views
of celestial objects available from any
telescope
on Earth or in space.
If
your eyes could perceive comparable detail,
you
could read a newspaper in New York
while
sitting in Los Angeles!
VLBA Antenna Locations
St. Croix, Virgin Islands
Hancock, New Hampshire
North Liberty, Iowa
Fort Davis, Texas
Los Alamos, New Mexico
Pie Town, New Mexico
Kitt Peak, Arizona
Owens Valley, California
Brewster, Washington
Mauna Kea, Hawaii
These
82-foot-wide (25 meter) dish antennas
collect
the radio waves coming from astronomical
objects
and direct them into the radio receivers.
The
fully-steerable, advanced-design antennas
weigh
240 tons each.
When
Aimed straight up, their tops are
nearly
as tall as a 10-story building.
Just
mount your antennas to the roof.
This
would turn the entire house around!!!
Jerry
WB9Z pictured below the dish.
This
is the sign on the fence at the dish site
showing
the location of all the dishes in the array.
This is all of the of the photos of the VLBA dish at St Croix.
Click
here to go back to page 1
The
operating position at WP2/WB9Z.
Back
to page 1 of 2.
Click
here to E-Mail
comments
to Jerry WB9Z
Thanks for viewing
these pages!
73' and best
DX!!!
