Very Large Array antennae. Composite image of a starfield showing the constellation of Orion above dish antennae of the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, near Socorro in New Mexico, USA. The VLA is the world's largest radio telescope array, consisting of 27 dish antennae, each 25 metres in diameter and 235 tonnes in weight. The antennae may be moved to various positions along the arms of a Y-shaped railway network. Two of the arms are 21 kilometres (km) in length, while the other is 19 km. The data from all the dishes can be combined by interferometry techniques giving a single finest-detail radio image, the 27 antennae effectively forming one giant 27 km radio dish.