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So first: if you're willing to spend the night in Socorro it's pretty easy to do both. Trinity is about an hour drive and it takes about 2 hours to see it all

So first: if you're willing to spend the night in Socorro it's pretty easy to do both. Trinity is about an hour drive and it takes about 2 hours to see it all (it'd be an hour but you have to wait for the shuttle to the house and back) then it's 2.5 to 3 hours to the VLA (don't speed through Magdalena, rez cops love to post up there) so you can be there by early afternoon. That said. The Trinity site is some plaques, a shack and New Mexico scrub land; the VLA is (if in a close configuration) a dramatic sight, some plaques and New Mexico scrub land AND if it's an open house: the chance pick the brains of operations people. That's the big difference, open house VLA you can talk to people who's lives are the VLA; Trinity you can talk to people who volunteered to keep tourists from doing anything stupid.

Avshalom 8y ago
Also Also: feel free to stop by the New Mexico Tech physics department, they might not admit it but they're all willing to shoot the shit about telescopes and bombs at the drop of a hat.
- CamperBob2 8y ago
  Agreed, there's lots of interesting stuff to do around that part of the country if you can finagle the necessary access. Or at least, there was, back in the 'Star Wars' era. My first visit to NM was on an ISEF-sponsored trip in 1983, when the science fair was held in Albuquerque. We didn't visit the Trinity site (or at least I didn't), but we got to play with a CO2 laser at Sandia Labs, chill out on the couches encircling the Cray 1 at Kirtland AFB, and watch the NMIMT 'Terminal Effects' group blow some stuff up in the desert. (Un)fortunately the demo was conducted with conventional explosives only, but it was still fun to watch. There was also a gigantic wooden trestle spanning a canyon in the same area, wrapped in giant Helmholtz coils for testing aircraft under various EMP conditions. I imagine that's all done via simulation these days.

Avshalom 8y ago

Also Also: feel free to stop by the New Mexico Tech physics department, they might not admit it but they're all willing to shoot the shit about telescopes and bombs at the drop of a hat.

CamperBob2 8y ago
Agreed, there's lots of interesting stuff to do around that part of the country if you can finagle the necessary access. Or at least, there was, back in the 'Star Wars' era. My first visit to NM was on an ISEF-sponsored trip in 1983, when the science fair was held in Albuquerque. We didn't visit the Trinity site (or at least I didn't), but we got to play with a CO2 laser at Sandia Labs, chill out on the couches encircling the Cray 1 at Kirtland AFB, and watch the NMIMT 'Terminal Effects' group blow some stuff up in the desert. (Un)fortunately the demo was conducted with conventional explosives only, but it was still fun to watch. There was also a gigantic wooden trestle spanning a canyon in the same area, wrapped in giant Helmholtz coils for testing aircraft under various EMP conditions. I imagine that's all done via simulation these days.