Entries categorized as ‘astronomy’
September 9, 2011 · 1 Comment
Welcome to my series of posts about my research trip to South Africa in June/July! See also parts one and two and three…
(As usual, all writing on this blog is solely my opinion and does not reflect the attitudes of any of my projects, institutions, colleagues, etc…)
June 24: Field Work Begins
I was excited for this trip for many reasons. One was the physical aspect. I get to do field work and not just sit in front of a desk all day! But by the end of day 1, my muscles were sorry I said that.
Okay, back up. Before the ouchiness, there was the beauty of the site. On the first ride out from the visitor dorm, we crest over a hill to see the Karoo Array Telescope, or KAT-7. And I just LOVE interferometers and think they are so pretty! The road then continued on to our array. I use the word “road” very generously at this point to signify a washboard-like dirt path. We pondered over the bouncy, bumpy path, wondering if such a pattern could occur naturally with use. Or was it the wind? Something else? This question would be answered several days later…
KAT-7 on a rare cloudy day
Categories: astronomy · science
Tagged: grad school, paper, south africa, travel
Welcome to my series of posts about my research trip to South Africa in June/July! See also parts one and two…
(As usual, all writing on this blog is solely my opinion and does not reflect the attitudes of any of my projects, institutions, colleagues, etc…)
June 23: Wait… wait… wait… GO!
Today, we wake, knowing this is the day we set forth. Well, hoping that this is the day we set forth since we’ve already been delayed by a customs snafu. Supposedly, our telescope parts were en route from Johannesburg to Cape Town the night before, though FedEx’s online page still says they are in Germany. After many calls back and forth, we find that, indeed two big wooden crates have arrived in Cape Town, but only four boxes, when we were expecting five. Okaaaay…
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Categories: astronomy · science
Tagged: cape town, karoo, paper, south africa, travel
This summer has included a LOT of travel. Here is the next installment of my travelogues! (See also, Part 1)
(As usual, all writing on this blog is solely my opinion and does not reflect the attitudes of any of my projects, institutions, colleagues, etc…)
June 22: Day 1 in Cape Town
We met up with Jason Manley, PAPER collaborator who works for the SKA-SA. (Or, Square Kilometer Array – South Africa.) Jason had been to Green Bank, West Virginia, once before, so it was good to see a familiar face. I sat in the front passenger seat on the way in to the SKA office, and that was totally strange! If I didn’t look to the right, it was as if the car was driving itself! Really, of course, Jason was driving from the right side of the car as we drove on the left side of the road. I kept trying to mentally navigate through intersections as we went, and found myself totally confused. Though I’d like to give driving here a try (in an automatic vehicle) I am certainly in no rush to do so. I find it rather amusing that with a United States driver’s license I can legally hop into a car and go, though the experience is completely reverse! Amusing… or terrifying.
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Categories: astronomy · science
Tagged: cape town, radio telescopes, ska, south africa, telescope, travel
Greetings! Oh how I’ve missed blogging, though I’m sure I was hanging out with a good chunk of my readers at The Amazing Meeting 9 in Las Vegas last week. Now, I’m taking some much deserved downtime at Lake Wallenpaupack in Pennsylvania with Tim and family. Of course, downtime also means catch-up on blogging time, and I have the next in my series of “South Africa Travelogues” almost ready to go. (See part 1!)
In the meantime, I have a quick but exciting announcement. If you are wavering on going to Dragon*Con, a ginormous geek-fest in Atlanta over Labor Day weekend, waffle no more. Not only will there be the lovely Skeptrack, Space Track, and Science Track, but the Atlanta Skeptics are once again having their annual Star Party in honor of Jeff Medkeff. The event will be hosted by the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait, the lovely and inspiring Pamela Gay, and me! Here is a preview from TAM9, photographed by Bruce Press:
Now you know you want to be there, enjoy the stars, and kick cancer in the BUTT!
Categories: astronomy · fun
Tagged: blogging, Dragon*Con, tam
Wanted to drop a quick “hello!” out there as I haven’t continued my travelogues here. Lots of work, little free time, and very little internet time have all contributed to that. However, I’m still writing here and there and taking lots and lots of pictures, all to be seen soon after I get home next week. However, if you want to follow a very general outline of the PAPER-South Africa 64-antenna deployment and data taking run, do check out my twitter hashtag, #psa64. At least I can get a tweet out now and again.
The array is mostly up and running, barring minor issues, and we’re calibrating the first set of 64-antenna data now. Sixty-four! Images of the sky are looking pretty good as we continue working on the data. I can’t wait to share them. It really is an amazing experience to see such good data come off an instrument that you helped to build.
On Friday, I’ll be in Cape Town, checking out the SKA Winter School and stopping by the University of Cape Town’s Astronomy Department. Then, Saturday, I get on yet another long series of flights to come back home! It’s been a great trip out here, and such a gorgeous site. But, I admit, I do miss civilization, so Friday’s visits at the Cape will be a welcome change. And, I miss my fellow UVa grads, so going home, even for a brief bit, will be nice as well.
And then, TAM9………
Categories: astronomy
Tagged: cape town, paper, south africa, travel
Greetings from South Africa! As you may know by now, I’m on a research trip to build out the Precision Array to Probe the Epoch of Reionization, or PAPER, out to a 64-antenna radio astronomy array. My advisor, Rich Bradley, and resident technical wonder, Pat Klima, and I have spent two days in Cape Town in preparation for our journey to the desert, so I thought I’d share a few of my experiences, expanding out the brief notes that I’ve been jotting along the way.
(As usual, all writing on this blog is solely my opinion and does not reflect the attitudes of any of my projects, institutions, colleagues, etc…)
June 20: The flight begins
The first leg of the trip is very familiar to me as it’s the brief and nearly parabolic hop from Charlottesville to Washington, DC, in a prop plane. As soon as we hit cruising altitude, we began our descent. Beats the traffic into the city by car! We had to navigate the new-ish and rather bizarre airport layout, which involved going up and down sets of escalators and stairs to a train to our terminal. There was a rather sad dearth of outlets at our gate, but once I grabbed one, I made a point to start reading through my backlog of tagged astro-ph papers. (Thank you, Mekentosj Papers.) This also marked the first of two times, so far, that I’ve been blatantly cut in line at a counter by a South African man. Is this a “thing”? Or am I just doing the “standing in line” bit wrong. The driving is all flipped, so maybe I’m missing something…
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Categories: astronomy · science
Tagged: paper, south africa, travel
And all the planning and craziness leading up to today is over. Let the adventure begin! I’m heading to South Africa to work on The Precision Array to Probe the Epoch of Reionization, aka PAPER, aka the project on which i am writing my thesis. I’ve talked about PAPER a bit before, as it is a radio telescope that is being built to look for hydrogen in the very, very young universe, over 10 billion light years away.
I’ll be gone for three weeks, though it seems that I will have internet access in the desert after all. We’re putting out 32 antennas to join 32 already there, for a 64 antennas array to search the sky at low frequencies. Will send pictures as I can! And, I’m using the hashtag #psa64 on Twitter. Please do comment and tweet as I’ll be looking to keep up with the outside world even when I’m on my adventure.
Categories: astronomy · fun · skeptic
Tagged: paper, travel
The Cassini mission to Saturn. Nine Inch Nails. And a video composition by Chris Abbas.
This. Is. Art.
CASSINI MISSION from cabbas on Vimeo.
Love it so much.
(via Discovery News)
Categories: astronomy · outreach · science
Tagged: art, awesome, cassini, music, nin, video
We have more University of Virginia Astronomy tweeters! A few I’ve had to pester, most came here on their own. They all have such lovely stories to tell, and I’d recommend following them to anyone! They are all listed at UVa-Astro.
We have my officemate, @demessieres, a sweet, lovely geek who is just about at the finish line for her thesis and currently looking for a job relating to science communication. (Hint: She’s brilliant at it.) I used to share an office with @privong, who is always tweeting from his exciting travels, and @astroknots, a kick-ass radio astronomer who also knits like a fiend. Then there is the unstoppable @rareflwr41. If you are involved in astronomy or science education and haven’t heard of her already, you will. My dear friend @astrogailis is crazy busy making a brand new research instrument called APOGEE work, which you’ll hear more about soon. @mickeyj26 isn’t technically at UVa anymore, now a post-doc in Boulder, CO, but he’s still part of the family. And our newest to join is @astro_sailor, who has been watching twitter from the sidelines (aka twit-stalking) for a while, until I bugged the crap out of him to make a damn account already.
Much science and silliness is sure to ensue. Because we don’t have enough to distract us, right?
Thanks for letting me brag about my awesome friends!
Categories: astronomy · fun · outreach
Tagged: personal, twitter
Hey! Just a quick note to plug a really cool organization called Astronomers Without Borders. They asked me to write a guest blog for them for Global Astronomy Month, and you can see that here.
I’ll be crossing some borders of my own as I head off to South Africa in late June! Dates are almost set, and it looks like I’ll be arriving in Cape Town around June 19th or 20th, then heading out to the Radio Astronomy Reserve in the Karoo for fieldwork with my colleagues on the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization. After 2 or 3 weeks in the desert, I’ll be back with pictures and stories galore!
Travel tips welcome! If you are in and around Cape Town, say hello in the comments 
Categories: astronomy · education
Tagged: blog, karoo, paper, travel
I’m a 7th (and final!) year