Figure 3-34 The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array The 27 radio telescopes of the Jansky VLA system are arranged along the arms of a Y in central New Mexico. Besides being able to change the angles at which they observe the sky, astronomers can also move these telescopes by train cars so that the array can detect either wide areas of the sky (when they are close together, as in this photograph) or small areas with higher resolution (when they are farther apart). The inset shows the traditional secondary mirror assembly in the center of each of these antennas.