VLBA Stars

A starry night of Mauna Kea, one of the best known observing sites on the planet located at the top of Hawaii. Notable in the background sky is Sirius, the brightest star of our night time, in the left edge with prominent constellation Orion to its right, surrounded by large red nebulosity clouds. The band of northern hemisphere winter Milky Way shines over a 25-meter radio telescope, a component of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). This array is a system of ten remotely control radio telescopes which work together as the world’s largest dedicated astronomical instrument using the technique of very long baseline interferometry. Each antenna weighs over 200 tons and is nearly as tall as a ten story building when pointed straight up. The longest baseline in the array is 8,611 kilometers from Hawaii to Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.