Photo – Page 45 – National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Ghostly Glow of ALMA at Night

The green safety lights on the ALMA antennas provide the only light for this long-exposure photograph at the 16,500-foot elevation high site in northern Chile.

The nutating subreflector for an ALMA antenna. This wobbling reflector can be used to quickly offset the focus of an ALMA observation to aim to the sky for a check of the air quality. They were built in Green Bank, West Virginia.

ALMA Control Room

ALMA astronomers and telescope operators occupy this control room 24-hours a day, seven days a week. When this photo was taken, ALMA was not yet complete, but the array was active and doing science. The control room was divided into new antenna testing (right) and array science stations (left). All telescopes, whether they are actively observing in the array or are being put through their paces in the testing area, are controlled from this room. Data collected by the telescopes and their supercomputer are also received and processed here.

Japanese Antenna Assembly at ALMA

A busy scene at the Japanese telescope assembly area at the ALMA Operations Support Facility in northern Chile. Three completed 7-meter telescopes are in their final stages of testing, with the backup structure of a 12-meter dish under assembly in the foreground. In the background, an ALMA Transporter arrives to bring one of the 7-meters up to the Technical Building.

ALMA Transporters ascend to the high site

The two ALMA Transporters, giant 28-wheeled trucks that lift, power, and haul the telescopes for major servicing or during reconfigurations of the array. The one with the red accents is named Otto, after Otto Rettermaier, the president of Scheuerle, the company that made them. The one with the green assets is Lore, named for his wife.

ALMA’s Transporters rest under cover

The two ALMA Transporters rest in their Sun-shelter at the ALMA Operations Support Facility n northern Chile. These giant 28-wheeled trucks lift, power, and haul the telescopes for major servicing or during reconfigurations of the array. The one with the red accents is named Otto, after Otto Rettermaier, the president of Scheuerle, the company that made them. The one with the green assets is Lore, named for his wife.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
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