Capture Date/Time:
May 7, 2006
Camera: Canon 5D
Lens: 16-35mm 2.8L
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture/Shutter Speed:
F/9 – 1/200 sec
ISO: 100 – Flash: None

A dirt road inside of the restricted area of the Very Large Array located at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.This is where they filmed scenes of the movie Contact with Jodie Foster. I used a polarizing filter for the first time to darken up the sky since winds were kicking up lots of dirt making the sky a very light blue without it.

The Very Large Array (VLA), one of the world’s premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin 80 km (50 miles) miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across, with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (426.5 feet) in diameter.