This is the Control Room for the Very Long Baseline Array, a set of ten identical radio telescopes perched on mountain tops from Mauna Kea in Hawaii, in sites across the United States, all the way out to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. Thanks to a supercalculator called a correlator, the ten telescopes work as a single, giant telescope 5,351 miles across.

VLBA Observations and maintenance tests are coordinated, controlled, and monitored by staff working here at the Array Operations Center in Socorro, New Mexico.

Join astronomer Rick Perley for an exclusive tour of the VLBA data racks and digital correlator from scientist Walker Brisken. Choose a stop from the map beneath or from the menu at right.