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How Does the Spacing Between the Antennas of the VLA Affect the Science it Does?

-- Mark | May 28, 2020

Question:

Antenna spacing. Most of the time when I drive by the VLA on trips between Arizona and Colorado, it seems like the antennas are spread out at maximum distance on the Y spokes. Is that the most effective configuration for most studies? Thank you.

-- Mark

Answer:

I think that this question has been answered in the past within the “How Does a Radio Interferometer Work?” and “Why Not Always Observe at Maximum Resolution with a Radio Telescope Interferometer?” posts. In summary, the spacing between the antennas of an interferometer affects how fine a spatial scale the measurements can distinguish, with the wider separations corresponding to higher (finer) spatial resolution.

-- Jeff Mangum

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