Great Astronomical Observatories

The Green Bank Observatory, located in Green Bank, WV, is home to a number of radio-frequency telescopes conducting leading edge research of the cosmos. The facility sits in the National Quiet Zone where there is no cell phone service and even digital cameras are not allowed! The following images were all shot on old-fashioned film with a purely mechanical camera. (Hasselblad 500CM, 80mm and 150mm lenses and Ilford Pan F Plus film)

The Very Large Array, often referred to as simply the VLA, is a collection of 27 radio dish antennas located near Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is an 82-foot diameter radio dish and they are mounted on rails in a Y-configuration, allowing the distance between the antennas to be changed. The antennas do not operate individually, but rather work together in a network using the principle of interferometry--in effect creating a single telescope up to 22.6 miles across, dramatically increasing its resolution.