Tag Archives: Very Long Base Array

We were delighted to find that our quarters near Fort Davis were a hundred yards or so from this huge radio telescope. So close that we could hear what we dubbed the mechanical moo sound when the telescope made directional adjustments. Judy Myers, one of the tour guides at McDonald Observatory, said it was part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Long Base Array, a collection of ten radio telescopes from St. Croix, Virgin Islands to Mauna Kea, Hawaii. They are linked electronically to operate as one. Ours, available at the link in a real-time shot, was said by the locals to have been installed by Harvard University. Hence the name of the nearby collection of motel-like rooms at the Sproul Ranch where we stayed was the Harvard Lodge.