page_title: Very Large Array
section_title: Tourism
hierarchical_section_title: Very Large Array / Tourism
caption_attribution_description: English: A panorama showing the cross rail track structure of the Very Large Array (VLA), including an empty antenna mount station on the right (the three concrete piers that the antenna's triangular base mounts to).
context_page_description: The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory located in central New Mexico on the Plains of San Agustin, between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, ~50 miles west of Socorro. The VLA comprises twenty-eight 25-meter radio telescopes deployed in a Y-shaped array and all the equipment, instrumentation, and computing power to function as an interferometer. Each of the massive telescopes is mounted on double parallel railroad tracks, so the radius and density of the array can be transformed to adjust the balance between its angular resolution and its surface brightness sensitivity. Astronomers using the VLA have made key observations of black holes and protoplanetary disks around young stars, discovered magnetic filaments and traced complex gas motions at the Milky Way's center, probed the Universe's cosmological parameters, and provided new knowledge about the physical mechanisms that produce radio emission.
  The VLA stands at an elevation of 6970 ft above sea level. It is a component of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
context_section_description: The VLA is located between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, about 50 miles (80 km) west of Socorro, New Mexico. U.S. Route 60 passes east–west through the complex.
  The VLA site is open to visitors year round during daylight hours, and on every first and third Saturdays of the month, special guided and behind-the-scenes tours are offered. A visitor center houses a small museum, theater, and a gift shop.  A self-guided walking tour is available, as the visitor center is not staffed continuously.  Visitors unfamiliar with the area are warned that there is little food on site, or in the sparsely populated surroundings; those unfamiliar with the high desert are warned that the weather is quite variable, and can remain cold into April. For those who cannot travel to the site, the NRAO created a virtual tour of the VLA called the VLA Explorer.
caption: The cross rail track structure of the VLA, including an empty antenna mount station on the right (the three concrete piers that the antenna's triangular base mounts to)
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