Science Fair - Very Large Array.

Who likes physics? I do. Who likes physics experiments and scientific research? I do. If you like Physics, Scientific research, and large projects, you'll love the Very Large Array. The VLA is a collection of radio telescopes on rails. They can be repositioned along the rails for different astronomical fields of view. And I've started mapping the Very Large Array for OpenStreetMap.

My visit to the VLA was marked by thunderstorms. Yes, thunderstorms in the desert. That is my special power over the weather and OpenStreetMap events. You can see the rain in some of these photos.

Each antenna dish is 25m in diameter. The VLA site at NRAO has more information and great photos. So 25m in diameter (~82 feet) and shown here with a building and trailer for some sense of scale.

The antennas are repositioned on rails, and the array when fully extended is the size of a city with its suburbs. Here is the VLA as if it were plunked down in the middle of Columbus Ohio. It isn't.

So the rails and "civilization" are not disjoint. Even out here in the wilds of New Mexico. Here is one of the level crossings of the VLA and the entrance road to the visitor center. "Exempt crossing". I had to look it up. School buses don't have to stop before crossing these tracks. Perhaps because moving the antennas is a bit rare and a bit of a "big deal". They may have flaggers to mind traffic when the antennas are moving.

This crossing is on OpenStreetMap, and the point of view along the rails is approximately, this.

The tracks for the VLA appear to be a set of two parallel standard gauge tracks, used simultaneously by the purpose-built crawler. I've added the VLA rails to OpenStreetMap as a normal, single track

railway = rail

rather than using a new rail = double tag, or placing two sets of tracks for the length of the system.

In this image we see the junction with the main VLA rail and the siding for one of the antenna stations. The junction appears to be a simplified 90-degree crossing for the doubled tracks. The main rail appears unbroken at the junction which just makes me want to get a close look at the crawler that positions the antennas. What do they have, wheel sets that retract to jump over the main line rails?

Find the Very Large Array on OpenStreetMap.org.