<p>Physically there is nothing dictating the distances between dishes. </p>

<p>These telescope arrays are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometry" rel="nofollow">interferometers</a>. By combining the signal of the two dishes you can achieve a spacial resolution of a giant virtual dish that is about as large as the distance (called the baseline) between the two real telescopes. </p>

<p>A nice example of the power of this technique is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_long_baseline_interferometry" rel="nofollow">VLBI</a>, which is essentially such an array only the individual dishes are actually just observatories all over the world. </p>

<p>For more detail on how this all works exactly take a look at the wiki pages on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_synthesis" rel="nofollow">aperture synthesis</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_interferometer" rel="nofollow">astronomical interferometry</a>. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-02T19:25:26.977Z
2014-08-03T09:58:34.563Z
2014-08-03T09:58:34.563Z
Michael B.
<p>Increasing the separation of the dishes makes the effective aperture of the array larger, so it increases the spatial resolution. However, the overall collection area of the aperture has not increased, so the signal-to-noise ratio will not increase.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-03T16:04:28.880Z
Hi! Thank you for your answer. We tend to encourage the use of references. It would be great if you could include those in your answer. You can typeset links using markdown like this [link](example.com). We hope you find this site as amazing as we do.
harogaston
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-08-02T20:41:03.053Z
2014-08-02T20:41:03.053Z
dacunni
<p>In an array telescope configuration, like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array" rel="nofollow">VLA</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Telescope_Array" rel="nofollow">ATA</a>, what dictates the distance between each dish?</p>

<telescope>
Distance between each dish in an array telescope configuration
Bjørn-Roger Kringsjå
# Distance between each dish in an array telescope configuration

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-08-02)

In an array telescope configuration, like [VLA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Array) and [ATA](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Telescope_Array), what dictates the distance between each dish?

**Tags:** telescope

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-08-02. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Physically there is nothing dictating the distances between dishes.

These telescope arrays are [interferometers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometry). By combining the signal of the two dishes you can achieve a spacial resolution of a giant virtual dish that is about as large as the distance (called the baseline) between the two real telescopes.

A nice example of the power of this technique is the [VLBI](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_long_baseline_interferometry), which is essentially such an array only the individual dishes are actually just observatories all over the world.

For more detail on how this all works exactly take a look at the wiki pages on [aperture synthesis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_synthesis) and [astronomical interferometry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_interferometer).


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### Answer by username_2 on 2014-08-02. Score: 2

Increasing the separation of the dishes makes the effective aperture of the array larger, so it increases the spatial resolution. However, the overall collection area of the aperture has not increased, so the signal-to-noise ratio will not increase.

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Hi! Thank you for your answer. We tend to encourage the use of references. It would be great if you could include those in your answer. You can typeset links using markdown like this [link](example.com). We hope you find this site as amazing as we do.  

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