APOD: An ALMA Telescope Array Time-Lapse (2014 May 26)

[geckzilla]

I thought I was going to see a time lapse of what ALMA sees, but instead it's a time lapse of a few of the telescopes movements that make up the Array. Oh well.

I agree; pretty but boring. Would be cool if I hadn't seen dozens of other time lapse vids of the night sky.

BTW, why aren't the telescopes tracking an object? All three antennae slew in unison, then sit there unmoving while the sky revolves over them.

-faye kane
sexiest astrophysicist you'll ever see naked

I totally agree. Video shows nothing different than what we have seen in 100s of such. And, it's so short. I also thought we would see what the telescopes are seeing. Too bad ! And, what's up with the mysterious background music ? As if there's going to be something happening soon, we anticipate and nothing happens. Come on APOD !

You are mistaken if you think that we have seen hundreds of time lapses like this. APOD has covered ALMA very little, in fact. If you could stand at the array and really take it all in you might consider it to be one of the modern wonders of the world.

[Beyond]

Even though it is one of the wonders of the modern world, it would be nice to see how it sees those far off parts of the universe. Well, maybe one day...

And as for the "sexiest astrophysicist you'll ever see naked", I've never seen an astrophysicist in person, so it would be a double treat.

[Chris Peterson]

Even though it is one of the wonders of the modern world, it would be nice to see how it sees those far off parts of the universe. Well, maybe one day...

Well, the observatory has only been operational for a year. And it doesn't exactly generate images in the usual sense, although the data can be structured like an image (as here), or combined with optical data. Access to unembargoed data is also available, although with such a new instrument I'm sure much of the data remains accessible only to the investigators.

[Beyond]

Well, so much for that. It would take me too long to figure out how to get to what I wouldn't know what it was anyway, so I'll just wait for the artist's renditions. Thanks anyway, Chris.

[DavidLeodis]

It was interesting to read in the information brought up through "the video" link that the car headlights are from "the car lights of the guards patrolling at the AOS" (Array Operations Site). I guess the bright lights do not affect the instruments at the ALMA as they are not optical instruments.

I also noticed that the video was released by the ESO on 18 August 2010, which was long before the ALMA began scientific observations in the second half of 2011 according to information from another link.

[geckzilla]

And it doesn't exactly generate images in the usual sense, although the data can be structured like an image (as here), or combined with optical data.

That picture is fantastic, too. It's not quite the same thing but the VLA has a public archive website. I tried downloading some but the data is so many gigs (hundreds!) and I was never sure I was selecting the correct thing. I'd love to figure it out someday.