Best Inn Socorro

The search for life.

by caffeine_induced78

This and Roswell pretty much makes New Mexico the center of extraterrestrial happenings in the US. Sitting south of US hgwy. 60 in the high desert it is known simply as the VLA (Very Large Array). The more official name is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Until you get up near one of the individual dishes you can't grasp the scale. The dishes are wheeled out on railroad tracks and stand about 10 stories high. I love time lapse photography and I could not help but think of a radio image of the sky moving over these probes in time lapse. Why do I place surreal images into my mind? Because they are beautiful images to create. New Mexico is the place for that. The VLA is about 30 miles west of Socorro on US hgwy. 60.

Trinity Site

by sherita

"Ground Zero"

"Where the world's first nuclear device was exploded on July 16, 1945"

The town closest to the Trinity site is Soccoro. You can either drive in from the Soccoro area and enter through the Stallion Gate or you can meet a group of people that caravan in from Alamogordo. Since we were closer to Soccoro, that's the route we chose.

The site is only open two days a year; the first Saturday of April and October.

"McDonald Ranch House"

Where the bomb was assembled.

"Trinitite"

What was left after the plutonium bomb exploded and melted the sand.

It's found all around the site.

The Very Large Array Radio Telescope

by RowdyTheologian

"Not exactly in downtown Socorro"

First off, I just have to say I feel a little wierd filing a travelogue under a city located 50 miles from the location I'm writing about. But there's not much else between here and there... except the town of Magdalena.

"My pictures of the VLA"

I figured there were sufficient tips regarding the VLA, but I still wanted to post my pictures, so I'm going the travelogue route instead.