January 2004 - a local flight around the Albuquereque area. Tracking southwards to a point about 50 miles west of Socorro, one comes across a strange sight: 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin. These antennas form an astronomical radio observatory. Each antenna is 82 feet in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 22 miles across, with the sensitivity of a dish 422 feet in diameter. For more information (and lots of really cool pictures), see the VLA web site: http://www.vla.nrao.edu/