Runners and support personnel of the Americans United Flag Across America project arrived at the Very Large Array (VLA) early in the post-midnight morning of Monday, November 5, 2001. The run began in Boston on October 11, one month after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Drivers, runners, and support personnel stayed overnight at the VLA. During the night, a “VLA Night Owl Run” kept the flag moving around the VLA area until the westward trek to Los Angeles, California resumed after dawn. The run was organized by employees of American and United Airlines to honor the flight crews lost in those attacks, to show support for U.S. troops, and to raise funds to help the victims’ families.
Senator Udall Visits the VLA
U.S. Senator Tom Udall visited the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array on July 2, 2012 for a briefing and tour of the facility. Here inside the “vertex room” of a VLA dish antenna, NRAO employee Eric Chavez explains the electronics to the Senator.
Summer Students Use the GBT
Regina Flores was a summer research student in Green Bank from Barnard College. She was observing with the Green Bank Telescope as part of the NSF’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.
Summer Students at Green Bank
Every summer, Green Bank welcomes a selected group of undergraduates for several months of intense research experience. They come from around the country. Many of these students shown here are now professional astronomers working around the world. They are sitting on one of the old radio-quiet diesel vehicles used to drive around the observatory.
Research Experiences for Teachers
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory offers summer research positions at the NRAO in Socorro, NM, Charlottesville, VA and Green Bank, WV. The program, called Research Experiences for Teachers, provides teachers with 8-week summer internships working with individual astronomers or other NRAO staff on their research. RET participants get involved in one of several astronomy research projects which use radio telescopes to make observations, analyze data, construct instruments, or monitor the local interference environment.
Transporting parts of the 140-foot telescope to Green Bank
The Green Bank site in West Virginia was chosen for its remoteness from the radio interference of cities. However, on occasion, this remote location has given us some headaches. In this photo from the early 1960s, engineers measure the clearance inside the Droop Mountain tunnel in West Virginia that stood between the steel manufacturers of our 140-foot (43-meter) telescope and Green Bank. This tunnel, and a few other tight spots in Pennsylvania, constrained the size of the polar shaft bearing to 17.5 feet — still the largest steel bearing ever made.