How Engineers Very Carefully Inspect Large Radio Antenna Dishes

I have only one piece of advice : Watch out for the stiletto heel before sitting down when you are about to inspect radio telescope antenna .

What you see in the picture above is the dish of one of the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array ( ALMA ) antennas in the Atacama desert of northern Chile . Two engineers from the ALMA Operations Support Facility visit the looker from the inside seance and standing on the reflecting telescope open . Every feeler is fine-tune and tested at the Operations Support Facility , located at an altitude of 9,515 base , before being moved to the 16,730 - ft - gamey Array Operations Site .

Image : M. Alexander / ESO

William Duplessie