This morning we left the ranch we were staying at near Gila and headed to Santa Fe. A bit down the road we saw a sign for a bakery and coffee shop. We couldn’t resist stopping for coffee and cinnamon roles.
Next we did a hike along the Continental Divide Trail.
The highlight of the day was seeing the Very Large Array (VLA). It is 27 giant radio telescopes spread out along three legs of a Y. They work together to ‘see’ and study object in space. They can be moved over a system of railway tracks to get different types of images.
We are staying at the Hotel Santa Fe. The meal we had in their restaurant was fabulous. We started out with the corn vichyssoise.
Then I had the salmon on a blackberry slaw and polenta and Duke had the beef tenderloin.
Marion's Blog 
So happy to see some food pictures. Yum.
How many people work at the VLA? Did you get any info on the ratio of data collection to data analysis? I want to go there.
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At the actual VLA site I don’t think there are a whole lot of people. In 2012 they completed a total replacement of the original electronics. Now they have a total fiber optic network to capture the data from each dish and send it to a supercomputer in a town nearby where they analyze all the data. Their website is https://public.nrao.edu/visit/very-large-array/
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