Pumped-up radio telescope seeks new moniker
The prosaically named Very Large Array radio-telescope installation is getting a substantial upgrade – and the boffins who tend it have decided that it needs a new name to go with its formidable facelift. The Very Large Array – or VLA, for short – is a group of 27 radio antennas located in the desert about 50 miles west of …
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Sell the naming rights
Hey, it works for stadiums. (Stadia?)
And the winner is....
Peered
Astronomical
Radio
Investigation of
Space
As for payment, I'll take either a government check or a six-figure research grant.
In honour of "The Archers"
SHULA.
Southern Hemisphere Ultra Large Array.
^-^
Sorry, wrong hemispere
New Mex is in the Northern Hemisphre.
@Herbie
My bad.
The "Atacama desert" bit stuck in my mind.
What's a hemispere?
^_^
Reilly
Just because I loved Chorlton and the Wheelies as a kid.
ESO naming
Unlikely, it started out as a way to avoid political problems naming their telescopes - we need the name of an astronomer who was 60% German, 20% French, 10% Italian ....
But it has become a deliberate (if slightly tongue in cheek) ESO policy to give them deliberately nerdy names - it's even regarded as an example of a German sense of humour.
Re: ESO naming
When I worked there the scientific workforce was 40% Italian. The Germans were very much in the minority, eclipsed by Brits and certainly by French.
ESO might be based near Munich but it is definitely NOT German! The guy in charge is Dutch and the chairman of astronomy is a Brit.
ELVAS has left the galaxy
Extremely Large Variable Array Sensor
WTF
Having driven through the array, on US60 west from Socorro, NM, the best name is "WTF is That ?" No, we knew it was there, but were unprepared for the scale of the thing. Then we got directed off the road by a NM State trooper, to make way for a portable building being moved.
The thing is between a long stretch of NOTHING, the array, then MORE NOTHING. You should drive it someday. It is just west of the Trinity site. After visiting, you understand why they blew it off out there, it is nowhere.
Buzzed
After much thought and a bit of research I ended up with this first effort.
Ternary
Wide
Array
Telescope
Works for me.
For some reason El Reg insists on screwing up the formatting by inserting double space.
Oh well. That is TWAT if you are suffering from some strange form of blindness.
For a desert
Sorocco seems to have a lot of grass. Just saying...
It's on the Rio Grande
And the imagery may have been shot the week after a rainstorm.
Scientific Time?
Shouldn't the time reference be UTC (BIPM) to be "scientific"?
Optional
Refining it with 'Very' should do the job. The beauty of that is that it scales well: make it bigger again? Prefix the (new) name with 'Very' again. And again. And again...
Taking Inspiration form Red Dwarf
Cornucopia of
Large
Interfering
Telescopes for
Observing
Radiative
Incidents in
Space
[Paris because she would want to play with it.]
From a couple of days ago
Posted here - http://www.plurk.com/p/ednikw
AOA - Already Obsolete Array, on account of the SCIRO et al
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/15/anz_lobby_for_uber_telescope/
I'd go with "JBOT"
Just a Bunch Of Telescopes.
(Or, for a truly British touch, how about "The Extensive Array", or "TEA".)
HORATIO
Huge Orientible RAdio Tri-axial Interferometric Observer
TADA!
Tri-axial Adaptive Directional Array!
(Sponsored by Yahoo!)
;-)
Why does it have to be prefixed?
Very Large Array — We Really Mean It This Time, or Maybe Next.
Or, perhaps
Really Quite Impressively Large Array
for Phase II, and then
ZOMG SRSLY Large Array
for Phase III?
Let the locals name it
RTMG - Radio Telescopio Muy Grande
VLA
Since we already have the letters Very Large Array Radio Telescope, we could tip a recognition to Douglas Adams, and call it the Vlarty Sartfast - it will certainly be providing yet more of a Guide to the Galaxy.
CHARITY
Celestial Huge Array Radio Interferometry Telescope Y-formation.
Imagine the headlines when funding is in doubt: "Senators refuse to give money to CHARITY"
When all the fun has been had and the joke gets old, they can then apply for funding for FAITH and HOPE.
PARIS
Particularly Awesome, Really Immense Space - thing.
Federal
University
Controlled
King-sized
Massive
Earth
Tethered
Hugh
Array
Telescope
Sees
Big
Interstellar
Galaxies
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