Owens Valley Radio Observatory

The Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) is a major site for radio astronomy observations, with numerous large steerable dishes. It is located here because of the lack of conflicting radio sources, a result of the remoteness and depth of the Owens River Valley, with 14,000 foot high mountains on either side. Features of the facility include the Caltech Millimeter Array, which consists of six 10-meter dishes on a configurable track, a solar interferometer antenna array, with two 27-meter dishes, and two Cosmic Microwave Background antennas. Most of the site is operated by Caltech and funded by the Office of Naval Research since 1960, with the exception of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) antenna, which is one of a network of ten antenna sites across the United States that make up the VLBA, a National Science Foundation project. Given its proximity to the ancient Bristlecone pines and fossil rich White Mountains, it is a propos that some of the oldest stars in the universe were discovered here.