2017 SARA Western Regional Conference

The SARA Western Conference met in Socorro, NM on March 17,18 & 19, 2017. We heard several presentations from SARA members, as well as presentations from Mark McKinnon, the Assistant Director for New Mexico Operations, Dr. Steven Myers, the lead for the Very Large Array Sky Survey project, and Dr. Greg Taylor from the University of New Mexico, principal investigator for the Long Wavelength Array project. We also sat in on a colloquium on pulsars given by Dr. Kevin Stovall of the University of New Mexico. The proceedings of the conference may be consulted for the detailed content of the presentations.

We had ample time to get better acquainted with each other, especially during a dinner on Friday night at Armijos Mexican Restaurant in Socorro. The third day of the conference consisted of a tour of the Very Large Array and the Long Wavelength Array sites 50 miles west of Socorro. The tour took two hours and gave us an in depth look at the operations of both instruments, followed by lunch in the cafeteria at the VLA site. Comments from attendees were very positive, stating this was a very successful conference, and that the NRAO staff in Socorro gave us excellent support for everything we needed.

Many thanks to all those who participated with planning and execution of this superb gathering of Radio Astronomy enthusiasts, both professional and amateur. It is also worth noting that the weather could be described by the humorous adage, “it was to die for!”

Photo: Gary Memory