VLA Color

The day before our arrival at the Very Large Array saw some heavy rain, but when we got to the site in the early afternoon the temperature was up in the 50s and the sky partly cloudy.

Most of the huge dishes were arrayed close to the visitor viewing area and they were all initially pointing obliquely to the east.  Then, over the course of just a few minutes, all of the dishes moved together to a full vertical attitude.  It was a marvelously choreographed display which seemed curiously life-like.

The light and shadows were in a constant state of flux because of the passing clouds, and I was glad to have a camera with good auto exposure.  On my next visit I'll try to give more thought to the gear to take along.  I'm fine with 35mm for color, but I would also like to try some medium format for the black and white, along with a couple filters.

The village of Magdalena is 25 miles east of the VLA.  I stopped the car at the edge of town on the way home to snap a couple pictures.  The place  has a lot more to it than these pictures show of course.  There are several motels and an number of small cafes.  There are few blocks of shops along the main street and houses are generously spaced for about a mile around the town.  Women in traditional Navajo attire are often seen on the street.

There are marvelous scenic views all along the stretch of Highway 60 going from the VLA back to Socorro.  I'm hopeful of spending a good deal more time exploring the area with my cameras in the coming year.

VLA

We drove an hour south to Socorro to attend a robotics competition in which our granddaughter was a participant.  It seemed a logical extension of the trip to go an hour further west to the Very Large Array radio telescope site.  There are 27 dish antennas; each is 82 feet in diameter and weighs 230 tons.  A rail system allows dispersal of the antennas in a Y-shaped configuration with a span of 22 miles.

I shot three rolls of film in about two hours.  These were on TMAX 100 in a Canon F-1 with a Canon FD f/1.4-50mm lens.  The film was processed in Freestyle's L110 film developer at 1:31 dilution.  I also shot a roll of Fuji 200 color in the same camera which I'll get to in a day or so.  A roll of Arista Edu Ultra 200 shot in my Zorki 2C was a total loss due to a defect in the film (Scratches running the full length on the non-emulsion side).  I'm looking forward to returning to the site soon with more and better film and a variety of cameras and lenses.