Greetings, all, from San Pedro, Chile! Well, actually, I’m drafting this post on the plane to Calama from Santiago, to be followed by a bus ride to San Pedro. I cut my trip to SXSW in Texas with my CosmoQuest colleagues short to answer an invitation for a trip that I have always wanted to go on. I am going to see, firsthand, the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array, or ALMA, at the high site of 16,500 ft (5000 m) in Chile.

My background as a radio astronomer has allowed me an up close and personal view of these large dishes throughout the years. In 2003, I was a summer student at the MIT Haystack Observatory where I analyzed data from the Very Long Baseline Array, or VLBA. This interferometer consists of ten identical 25-foot dishes spread around the North American continent, from Hawaii to St. Croix. We joked, as undergrads do, about taking a road trip to visit all ten telescopes. The very next summer, I was a summer student at the NRAO in Socorro and I got to check one off the list! (The Pietown antenna… and yes, the town IS knows for its excellent pies.)

Summer 2004: How many REU students can you fit in a VLA dish?

In fact, during two summers in Socorro as an intern, I had the opportunity to visit multiple big telescopes around the Southwest. We jokingly called ourselves “astronomer-tourists” since we knew the science and engineering behind the facilities, but still gaped open-mouthed at the monstrous instruments, clicking away with our cameras. We spent some time, of course, at the iconic Very Large Array, where I also cut my teeth with outreach, giving tours of the facility to visitors on the weekend. I learned a very important lesson that summer. It is that we have a duty as users of these telescopes, which are funded by tax-payer dollars, to share and explain the work that we are doing to the tax-paying public. It’s not just nice to get publicity. It’s not just a good idea to include outreach in your grants. I’ve come to view it as a vital part of my job as an astronomer to do so, and have come to enjoy it greatly.

Finding Green Bank’s “Big Horn” with Alok Singhal.

Later, as a graduate student at the University of Virginia, I spent a lot… a LOT… of time at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, just two and a half hours west of Charlottesville. I’ve seen every telescope on site, even the “Big Horn” used to make the first absolute flux calibrations which is now hidden from sight, and climbed into several of them, usually under authorization. (Usually.) I’ve even been to South Africa where the Karoo Array Telescope is being constructed as a pathfinder to the Square Kilometer Array, the next-next big thing in radio astronomy. You can say that I’m a very lucky woman to have been able to see these things and travel to the areas and explore these instruments as an insider. However, I never considered that I’d make it to ALMA.

The Karoo Array Telescope in South Africa.

Nevertheless, here I am on a plane heading into the Andes Mountains to tick another great radio observatory off the list, just as it is in its infancy. I’ve brought my camera, Pamela Gay’s camera, an audio recording device, and even my smartphone for quick video, so I’ll be sharing all of this in audio, video, and text with you, dear CosmoQuesters, so that you can feel the experience, too.

On the road to San Pedro, Chile.

Oh, and for the record, I’ve still only seen two VLBA dishes. Eight more to go! Road trip, anyone?