Milky Way over Radio Telescopes

Three silver dishes stand beside a gravel track as the Milky Way stretches diagonally across the sky. The nearest dish fills the left side, exposing its ribs, support struts and the small platform beneath it. Red lights mark the bases, and low shrubs break up the stony ground between the antennas.

Radio telescopes collect radio waves rather than visible starlight, so the bright sky here is a backdrop to their work, not a view through them. This is an imagined observatory scene rather than a record of a particular site.

Straight metal braces give the foreground a different rhythm from the ragged dust lanes overhead. Several pieces may carry similar silver edges, but the dishes face different directions. In the sky, a dark seam through the star clouds is often easier to follow than an isolated point of light.