Journals31
Newest
Astrophotography Group
1 min read
Hey everyone!
If you're currently have me in your deviantart watch list, it's probably because you're a fan of astrophotography, to some extent. As such, it might be of interest to you that ~st-ziza (st-ziza.deviantart.com/), ~dimitarmisev (dimitarmisev.deviantart.com/) and myself have started an astrophotography group. If you're interested, join, submit deviations, make some suggestions, or start up a conversation!
#Astro-Photography : astro-photography.deviantart.c…
Enjoy!
If you're currently have me in your deviantart watch list, it's probably because you're a fan of astrophotography, to some extent. As such, it might be of interest to you that ~st-ziza (st-ziza.deviantart.com/), ~dimitarmisev (dimitarmisev.deviantart.com/) and myself have started an astrophotography group. If you're interested, join, submit deviations, make some suggestions, or start up a conversation!
#Astro-Photography : astro-photography.deviantart.c…
Enjoy!
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Urgh
1 min read
Long story short.
I had a week of excellent STS-125/Hubble Telescope passes. We also had a week of terrible storms that resulted in my area being made a natural disaster zone.
'nuff said.
Excuse me while I curl up in a corner and cry.
I had a week of excellent STS-125/Hubble Telescope passes. We also had a week of terrible storms that resulted in my area being made a natural disaster zone.
'nuff said.
Excuse me while I curl up in a corner and cry.
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My trip to the AAT and the ATCA
5 min read
Hey everyone, Happy Christmas!
So as I announced in my last journal, I'm currently working as a vacation student at the Anglo-Australian Observatory (the AAO) here in Australia. As part of it I got the opportunity to go out to the Anglo-Australian Telescope (the AAT) at Siding Springs observatory (near Coonabarabran, NSW) to see the telescope in action and then up to the Australia Telescope Compact Array (the ATCA) near Narrabri to do an observing run on the radio array. It was a really fantastic experience (got to spend most of my time in areas the public isn't allowed to go) and I have a lot of photos. I'm planning on uploading some of the more " picturesque " to my gallery and I'll put some more of the "happy snap" type shots here in my journal.
So our first stop was the AAT at Siding Springs. The telescope dome is massive!
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
It was also pretty cool seeing some local wildlife so close to the telescopes and lodge.
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
Soon after we arrived my supervisor took me on a tour of the telescope. The dome felt even larger from the inside!
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
We were at the telescope for two nights, both nights we hung out with the observers in the control room. It was pretty interesting watching everything. And during long exposures we'd go into the tea room and pig out on food. There was a strange sign on the inside of one of the cupboard doors though…
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
None of us knew what it meant.
The views from the telescope's catwalk are amazing! The observatory is located near the Warrumbungle National Park and you get a beautiful 360 degree view of it. The sunsets are particulary fantastic – the best sunsets I've ever seen.
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
I also got to see a few of the AAT's instruments:
IRIS2 i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
Taurus II i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
RGO i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
There are also a number of other telescopes in the area, some of which can be seen in this picture: i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
Among these is the telescope that Robert McNaught used to discover his famous comet (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Mc…): i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
After two (cold) nights at the AAT, we drove up to the ATCA in Narrabri. We had an observing run for a few hours on Monday afternoon. The antennas were mighty impressive (especially from the 'no public access' road).
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
I took a few pictures inside the control room as well. The first picture is of the control station for the ATCA and the second is the control station for the Mopra dish (which we passed on our way up to Narrabri from Coonabarrabran).
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
There were also a few amusing things in the ATCA's control room. They had juggling balls, rubix cubes and other assorted puzzles for bored observers. I also found this on the wall:
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
Our observing run went pretty well, there were a few instances of interference but we still got lots of useable data. We finished before dinner time which meant that I could spend the afternoon/evening looking around the site. They have bikes for people saying at the lodge, so we went for a ride up the 3km service road beside the antennas. It was good fun!
And that's all I've really got to show. I have a lot more pictures that I took, but these are the better (and more interesting) ones. I do have about 6 or 7 images that I'm going to upload to my gallery, but it will take me a while to write the description for them all so they might take a few days for me to upload. I've also got a few youtube videos that I'm putting together from some footage I captured on my camera, but again, they might be a while.
Oh and by the way, I've had limited internet since I've been down in New South Wales for my job. As such I've neglected replying to a lot of comments, viewing deviations etc. I'm home at the moment, so I should be able to catch up in the next week.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas!
So as I announced in my last journal, I'm currently working as a vacation student at the Anglo-Australian Observatory (the AAO) here in Australia. As part of it I got the opportunity to go out to the Anglo-Australian Telescope (the AAT) at Siding Springs observatory (near Coonabarabran, NSW) to see the telescope in action and then up to the Australia Telescope Compact Array (the ATCA) near Narrabri to do an observing run on the radio array. It was a really fantastic experience (got to spend most of my time in areas the public isn't allowed to go) and I have a lot of photos. I'm planning on uploading some of the more " picturesque " to my gallery and I'll put some more of the "happy snap" type shots here in my journal.
So our first stop was the AAT at Siding Springs. The telescope dome is massive!
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
It was also pretty cool seeing some local wildlife so close to the telescopes and lodge.
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
Soon after we arrived my supervisor took me on a tour of the telescope. The dome felt even larger from the inside!
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
We were at the telescope for two nights, both nights we hung out with the observers in the control room. It was pretty interesting watching everything. And during long exposures we'd go into the tea room and pig out on food.
There was a strange sign on the inside of one of the cupboard doors though…i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
None of us knew what it meant.
The views from the telescope's catwalk are amazing! The observatory is located near the Warrumbungle National Park and you get a beautiful 360 degree view of it. The sunsets are particulary fantastic – the best sunsets I've ever seen.
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
I also got to see a few of the AAT's instruments:
IRIS2 i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
Taurus II i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
RGO i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
There are also a number of other telescopes in the area, some of which can be seen in this picture: i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
Among these is the telescope that Robert McNaught used to discover his famous comet (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Mc…): i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
After two (cold) nights at the AAT, we drove up to the ATCA in Narrabri. We had an observing run for a few hours on Monday afternoon. The antennas were mighty impressive (especially from the 'no public access' road
).i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
I took a few pictures inside the control room as well. The first picture is of the control station for the ATCA and the second is the control station for the Mopra dish (which we passed on our way up to Narrabri from Coonabarrabran).
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1… i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
There were also a few amusing things in the ATCA's control room. They had juggling balls, rubix cubes and other assorted puzzles for bored observers. I also found this on the wall:
i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
Our observing run went pretty well, there were a few instances of interference but we still got lots of useable data. We finished before dinner time which meant that I could spend the afternoon/evening looking around the site. They have bikes for people saying at the lodge, so we went for a ride up the 3km service road beside the antennas. It was good fun!
And that's all I've really got to show. I have a lot more pictures that I took, but these are the better (and more interesting) ones. I do have about 6 or 7 images that I'm going to upload to my gallery, but it will take me a while to write the description for them all so they might take a few days for me to upload. I've also got a few youtube videos that I'm putting together from some footage I captured on my camera, but again, they might be a while.
Oh and by the way, I've had limited internet since I've been down in New South Wales for my job. As such I've neglected replying to a lot of comments, viewing deviations etc. I'm home at the moment, so I should be able to catch up in the next week.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas!
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My summer work
2 min read
Hey guys.
I've been meaning to write this for quite some time now, but (as you might tell by my lack of updates and/or journals) I'm rather lazy.
I'll start with some bad news – I don't have access to my telescope until late February (except for about a week during Christmas). So there is a good chance that you won't be seeing anything from me for a while.
The good news? I'm working here: i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
So yeah, I'm currently a summer vacation student at the Anglo-Australian Observatory down here in Sydney, Australia. I've just finished my first week.
It's been pretty good so far, the people down here are really friendly. I haven't actually done much yet - I've spent most of the time just trawling through journal articles and manuals/hand books for their Linux system and data reduction/analysis program.
While down here I'm studying supernova 1978K, an unusual type of supernova known as a type IIn. I'll be doing data reduction/analysis on data from Gemini South's (apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0609/…) GMOS-S instrument and in a few weeks my supervisor and I are going up to the ATCA (www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/) to collect some data. On the same trip we're visiting the AAT (www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/m…) for a few nights which should be awesome.
So that's what I'm doing with my summer holidays. They're gonna be good I think!
I've been meaning to write this for quite some time now, but (as you might tell by my lack of updates and/or journals) I'm rather lazy.
I'll start with some bad news – I don't have access to my telescope until late February (except for about a week during Christmas). So there is a good chance that you won't be seeing anything from me for a while.
The good news? I'm working here: i111.photobucket.com/albums/n1…
So yeah, I'm currently a summer vacation student at the Anglo-Australian Observatory down here in Sydney, Australia. I've just finished my first week.
It's been pretty good so far, the people down here are really friendly. I haven't actually done much yet - I've spent most of the time just trawling through journal articles and manuals/hand books for their Linux system and data reduction/analysis program.
While down here I'm studying supernova 1978K, an unusual type of supernova known as a type IIn. I'll be doing data reduction/analysis on data from Gemini South's (apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0609/…) GMOS-S instrument and in a few weeks my supervisor and I are going up to the ATCA (www.narrabri.atnf.csiro.au/) to collect some data. On the same trip we're visiting the AAT (www.physics.uq.edu.au/people/m…) for a few nights which should be awesome.
So that's what I'm doing with my summer holidays. They're gonna be good I think!
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