CONTACT

Oh, I am all excited all over again to write about the VLA - the Very Large Array. You know? The place where Jodie Foster first hears the signal from the aliens?

For as long as YouTube leave it there...

Contact moment

As many of you know, this is certainly in my top 3 movies of all time - in fact, I think it's been too long since I forced you all to watch it with me. Again. So look out.

A lovely drive over there too. We stopped for a particularly memorable lunch in Magdalena, the nearest town, before we arrived here; the Karl Jansky Radio Astronomy Observatory. Soooo coool.

DISHY

I probably took 300 photos (as usual, most were rubbish), but I am going to create a separate blog post of all the remaining decent ones (120 or so)... ...hang on Sarah's talking to me...

("What?"

"Of course they will."

"What do you mean, frickin boring? Boring? The VLA? Jodie Foster?"

"Just one hundred then? No! I.... But...  okay. Damn.")

Okay. Overruled. Here's a few though..

Needless to say, we loved it. Inspiring and beautiful! I took the special once-monthly guided tour too (for free), which gave a look around the inside of the buildings and the operations. Very, very interesting.

We met Bill Long here too (real name??), who we intended to catch up with in Santa Fe where he lives, but in the end (being us) we just didn't get around to it. Bill - if you're reading this, well met! See you next time:

A FUZZY BILL LONG

We drove back late to Socorro, and joined the folks from the VLA for a star party at the observatory at the Institute of NM. Poor viewing due cloud, but lovely scopes. So jealous!

Unsure of where to stay, or where to go, we headed out very late for a rare drive along the Interstate. We passed Albuquerque on a very windy dark night, and stopped on Indian land.....