{"id":723,"date":"2009-07-31T17:55:09","date_gmt":"2009-07-31T22:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/?p=723"},"modified":"2019-01-02T16:21:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T21:21:04","slug":"very-large-array","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/2009\/07\/31\/very-large-array\/","title":{"rendered":"very large array"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/jlocke\/3750340505\/in\/photostream\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/vla.jpg\" alt=\"vla\" title=\"vla\" width=\"990\" height=\"676\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-724\" srcset=\"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/vla.jpg 990w, http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/vla-300x204.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 990px) 100vw, 990px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Or: Weird Shit That In Theory Should Seem Incongruous with the Desert Landscape but is Actually Perfect.<\/p>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>Case in point, the VLA has to exist here. Those things aren&#8217;t stationary. The satellites are constantly moving along modified railroad tracks that allow the focus of the array to flux, necessitating a flat landscape to reduce expending energy during their re-arrangements. Secondly, the Plains of San Augustine are flat, but they&#8217;re high, the altitude is 7000 ft and helps ensure the clarity of the received solar signals. Lastly, the plains are encircled by a number of mountain ranges that block terrestrial radio signals from interfering with the delicate equipment.<\/p>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p>Plus the invisible radio waves tethering VLA to distant space anomalies make for a nice compliment to Buzz Aldrin&#8217;s visual correlation between the high desert and the &#8220;magnificent desolation&#8221; of the lunar landscape. But, not surprisingly, Cormac McCarthy provides the strongest portrait of the landscape: &#8220;Below them in the paling light smoldered the plains of San Agustin stretching away to the northeast, the earth floating off in a long curve silent under looms of smoke from the underground coal deposits burning there a thousands years. The horses picked their way along the rim with care and the riders cast varied glances out upon that ancient and naked land.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/satellite.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/satellite.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"satellite\" width=\"990\" height=\"729\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2716\" srcset=\"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/satellite.jpg 990w, http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/satellite-300x220.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 990px) 100vw, 990px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"clearer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Or: Weird Shit That In Theory Should Seem Incongruous with the Desert Landscape but is Actually Perfect. &nbsp; Case in point, the VLA has to exist here. Those things aren&#8217;t stationary. The satellites are constantly moving along modified railroad tracks that allow the focus of the array to flux, necessitating a flat landscape to reduce [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,6],"tags":[83,23,73],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4277,"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions\/4277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gracefulspoon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}