Antenna testing

1 January, 2006 / Read time: 1 minute

This video from 2005 documents the visit of personnel from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) to the ALMA Antenna Test Site in Socorro, New Mexico. 

In this facility, owned by the Very Large Array (VLA) of the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the partners’ three 12-meter antenna prototypes are tested with holography towers to verify that they are working correctly and they are then delivered to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). 

Four minutes into this video, the antenna from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the NRAO antenna and finally the NAOJ antenna are shown from right to left. Although each one has a unique design, they meet all of ALMA’s requirements to examine the Universe while braving the climate of the Chajnantor Plateau in northern Chile.

Credits: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)