To get out of the way of the oncoming van.
(reporting from I-10 exit 85)
Why did the chicken cross the road?
1 Reply
Monthly Archives: October 2013
VLA
Today my travels took me to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array along US 60 in western New Mexico.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array
The collection of 27 dishes pick up signals on the electromagnetic spectrum from distant objects in the universe like black holes and supernovae and every other awesomely cool phenomena waiting for its own episode of Star Trek. (C’mon, CBS; get on that!)
They can move the antennae around with these sets of double railroad tracks, one of which crosses the highway.
We’ve been driving past this facility periodically for over a month and finally had the time to visit the actual visitor’s center today.
There’s some cool stuff there especially if you’re into science and astronomy. You look around at all these gargantuan machines probing into the far corners of known space and it makes you feel better about our species. Here we have a sizable investment of resources devoted to the advancement of human knowledge. The 27 dishes combining their efforts to effectively create a single antenna miles and miles across is an uplifting metaphor for what people can accomplish when we try.
I definitely picked up some swag at the gift shop. I wish I had more time to hang out at the VLA, but this time of year, we’ve gotta take advantage of high sun to do our job. We’ve got our own science data to collect.
Elk Crossing
It’s been kind of a running joke between myself and Jordan, the guy I’m working with here in New Mexico. We thought it’d be pretty cool if we could see an elk or two while we’re here. After the first elk crossing sign we saw, we were like “Oh yeah, bring on the elk; this is where they’re at.” It was us being funny because how often to you see a deer immediately after you pass a deer crossing sign?
After a month and a half of passing elk crossing signs and not seeing any elk, we’d start pointing to them and say something like, “It’s one of those lying signs.” or “Watch for invisible elk.”
Well all that sarcasm paid off on Saturday morning. Just like getting a bite after complaining at length about how terrible the fishing is. On US 60 in western New Mexico near Magdalena, we saw a young elk looking for a place to jump a fence along the highway. I took this terrible photo before it trotted out of sight. (Stupid sun!)
Granted it would’ve been way cooler if it was a big bull with a huge rack, but why be a choosy beggar? This little guy is still awesome.
Elephant Butte
Does this look like an elephant to you?
I don’t see it. Maybe you need to look at it from the other side.
At any rate, this hill gets a reservoir on the Rio Grande named after it. As you can see, it’s not exactly full. That’s pretty normal as it’s used to store water for downstream irrigation. The Rio Grande is one of those streams where humans use so much of the water that downstream from here, it runs dry for large chunks of the year.
Triplemultiplex.com 