An Andean Fox is a frequent visitor to the ALMA Array Operations Site, 16,500 feet up in the Chilean Andes. Other frequent visitors at the high sight could include southern viscachas (members of the chinchilla family), vicugnas (members of the llama family) and hummingbirds.
Wide shot of ALMA’s clear blue skies
As the driest place on Earth, one can expect a lot of clear days on top of the Chajnantor plateau. Whenever there is precipitation, it doesn’t stay around long due to the high altitude and quick evaporation.
Inside the Atacama Array
ALMA is composed of 66 high-precision antennas. Fifty of these antennas are 12m antennas used for sensitive, high-resolution imaging. Shown here are several of the North American 12m antennas and towards the left is a Japanese 12m. These fifty 12m antennas are complemented by the Atacama Compact Array (ACA), also known as the Morita Array, composed of twelve closely spaced 7m antennas and four 12m antennas.
VLA Transporter Makes a Delivery
On a hot summer’s day in the New Mexico desert, an Antenna Transporter rests after safely delivering a 230-ton antenna of the Very Large Array to a new pad farther away from its 27 telescopic neighbors.
VLA Transporter in its Garage
The “High Plains Lifter” is one of two antenna transporters at the Very Large Array. Their job is to carefully lift and haul the 25-meter dish antennas to and from pads along the Y-shape of the array.
The Bed of a VLA Transporter
Here is a look at the back of an Antenna Transporter at the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Crews drive this end underneath an antenna, lower it, disconnect the antenna from its pad, and then raise the bed up. The driver then slowly hauls the antenna to a new pad.