Ever wanted to drop in on a bunch of space nerds discussing the top stories of the week? Of course you do. You are reading this blog.

All of the episodes are now also archived on CosmoQuest, where you can watch the show live, every Thursday at 18 UTC. Find your timezone for next week here!

Also, I’ve been dumping some personal videos that I’ve dug up onto YouTube. Here is a panorama of the PAPER-South Africa site from June 2011:

There’s also my skydiving video that was on VHS (thank you, Tim, for converting it!) and some “Occupy” and related protest footage from recent travels. I figured, why not share the bits.

So… just as I was saying how I need to spew forth words into a thesis by April… I’ve also joined SkepChick as a new blogger! I figure, if I just keep writing and writing and writing in different places, something good will come out. Right?

In any case, I’m honored to join such a creative, fun, smart, and nerdy group. My first two posts focus on exoplanets and aliens, as I get right into my favorite topics.

Also, I finally posted a blog again on Discovery, this time about the very cool APOGEE project that has had its first observations.

And in one more announcement… the Weekly Space Hangout now has a home on CosmoQuest! Thanks to Pamela Gay’s impressive coding-fu, you can now go to one place for the hangout, live Astronomy Cast recordings, Questions with the Bad Astronomer, live virtual star parties, and whatever other astronomical goodness we can stream into your eyeholes.

Citizen science online is catching on these days. Not just for your screensaver anymore, these projects let you get your hands dirty, metaphorically speaking. You can classify galaxies or fold proteins.

I am really happy to share this project which is now in beta and building a community for astronomical research: CosmoQuest.

The first project, Moon Mappers, is underway, where you can classify surface features from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s images of the Moon. Get started with crater classifications, or pit your visual recognition software (aka your brain) against a computer.

CosmoQuest is more than just a place in which to play with data, though that is pretty cool. It’s a blog, a community forum, and a place to learn and share. And, it’s growing, so join in now! Coming soon are projects mapping the surface of asteroid Vesta and the planet Mercury.

Also, I am very happy to say that I will be working for CosmoQuest as a post-doc in a few months. That’s right; #WillAstronomForNoms was a success, and I’m going to be Pamela Gay‘s clone! Or something like that… we haven’t worked out the genetics yet.

So, I’m pretty excited, and I’m also trying to finish my thesis so I can get there! Lots. Of. Words. Wheee! Target defense date is sometime in the first week of May. So when I lose my mind between now and then, you know why.

Aaaannnnddd… back. In Charlottesville. The last week and a half saw me in two of the most fun cities I know and at two different conferences presenting my thesis work and all kinds of other professional stuff. Crazy.

You can get a nice sense of the week’s astronomy and space stories by watching the weekly astronomy video chat:

Thanks to Google+ master of the universe, Fraser Cain, we’re doing a live chat about astronomy every Thursday at 10amPT/1pm ET (that’s 18 UTC; check here for your local time.) You can ask questions in the chat during the event or watch the recorded video after it’s done. Last week, I called in from the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, and was graced with the presence of such stellar people as Pamela Gay, Phil Plait, Jon Voisey, Nancy Atkinson, Alan Boyle, Emily Lakdawalla, and Ian O’Neill.

If you watch closely you may catch wind of some excellent personal news that I will blog about shortly, if you don’t already know… Also, with the last month of Serious Work® under my belt, I’m making a return to blogging, at least occasionally, over at Discovery Space News. My latest article on the APOGEE project, built at UVa, is forthcoming. AND, I have some other news about blogging to share in a bit… TEASE.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the video!

Greetings, fellow space nerds and geeks! For the US folks, I hope you have recovered from your turkey coma and are getting back to your regularly scheduled week. We’re getting ready to celebrate the longest night of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere, while you Southern Hemispherers approach summer. However you celebrate the impending holiday, I hope its a peaceful and cheery time! Now, on to the astronomical goodness…

Feeling generous? Help fellow astronomy blogger Ray Sanders win a blogging scholarship! Go over to Dear Astronomer for more details, and vote for Ray until November 30th. Ray also has an article on Universe Today this week exploring the bizarre magnetic properties of pulsars.

The exoplanet count tops 700 as Ian O’Neill examines what is counted as a planet and what is still in the candidate category at Discovery News. With all of these exoplanets, many have held out hope of finding evidence of extraterrestrial life in the galaxy. Paul Scott Anderson wonders if extraterrestrial artifacts are lurking in our own solar system, just waiting to be discovered, at Meridiani Journal. (Of course, there are those that believe such artifacts have already been discovered, but, unfortunately, their cases are less than convincing.)

Back in the 18th century, the Titus-Bode Law was used to study the distances between planets, as explained at Vega 0.0 (spanish). A new age of exploring Mars has begun this past weekend with the successful launch of the Mars Curiosity rover. Weird Warp has more on this car-sized robotic science lab, set to land in August 2012. Stuart Atkinson tells us more about the successful liftoff at The Road to Endeavor, while assuring Opportunity that we still love her, too! The landing for Curiosity is set to be pretty spectacular, with a parachute, rockets, AND a crane:

Though Mars gets much of the attention these days, Venus was once a prime target for robotic exploration. Vintage Space looks back at NASA’s very first interplanetary mission with Mariner 2 in 1962. In that same decade, the United States and Soviet Union were racing to get people into space and to the Moon. So why didn’t the Soviets win the Moon race? Colin explains at Astronotes.

Switching to future modes of transportation, listen to Steve Nerlich at Cheap Astronomy on why faster-than-light travel is, sadly, out of the question. Lest you suffer from buzzkill after that, check out a report on carbon nanotubes that may be used for deep space camouflage at Next Big Future. Cloaking devices, activate! Back to the present, Next Big Future also tells us about a report by the FAA on the US commercial suborbital industries.

Turns out, you don’t have to go far from our home planet to encounter bizarre scientific phenomena. Niall at We are all in the gutter explores terrestrial gamma-ray flashes and their somewhat unknown origin.

That’s it for this week’s Carnival of Space! I’ll leave you with a replay of Curiosity’s launch from Saturday morning:

I was away this weekend at a really fun wedding and with no wifi, but I did manage to write about the stupendous amazing lovely first images from ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array.

And now, the astropr0n…

ALMA shows us what’s going on in the Antennae. Click the picture for a bigger view and my Discovery blog to find out more! Do me a favor and check it out, comment, share it with your friends, etc.

Waking up is hard to do…

My sleep schedule is bizarre. However! I still have my favorite links and stories from the week to share…

The OPERA instrument

Space sound files and ringtones from NASA! Go ahead, get your geek on.

Brian “El BoomBoom” Thompson tells us about diversity at the JREF’s The Amazing Meeting 9 last July, referencing Christian “Vanna” Walters and his take on how local groups can encourage diversity in the skeptical movement.

The whooping cough vaccine fades in efficacy, which is why adults and older children should absolutely get a booster! But three years? That’s shorter than I thought. Get your shot!

How many slaves work for you? The United States may have finally abolished slavery in the mid-19th century, but chances are, someone has been a victim of forced labor to make your stuff. (Site not letting me sign-up, but still interesting to poke around.)

The Skeptics Guide to the Universe did their part to save the world with a 24-hour live broadcast. I caught some of it and thought it was *fantastic*. Catch up on some of the fun with the videos recorded by justin.tv.

What’s the deal with gluten?! Skepchick Surly Amy talks about gluten hype and fact with Dr. Terry Simpson. I have known people who have developed Celiac’s disease, and I once worked for a bakery that specifically catered to them! However, avoiding gluten for any other reason seems to be based in pseudoscience.

Speaking of allergies, I am ready to subject myself to the scratches of allergy testing and shots with the hope of diminishing my allergies to cats. After all, I can’t ask Tim to choose between me and this lovely lady that already lives with him:

Picture of Jinx taken by me BEFORE I started to develop serious asthma symptoms to cat dander.

Expect reports from the allergy frontier!

And in a bit of shameless self-promotion… CHICKENS IN SPACE!

Finally, thanks to people that bought or bid on my eBay stuff. Cleaner closet and drawers, and my old stuff gets a second life! Whatever didn’t sell is going to be trucked over to Goodwill.

Have a good Monday, everybody.

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

I had never seen a PAPER array so big before. There were just about 32 antennas already in the field and about 32 more groundscreens had been assembled by the first team. (These were James and David from UPenn, Dave from Berkeley, our intrepid guide to the SKA, William, and three smart and talented interns, Ray, Zulu, and Monde.) So there they were, 64 bright white metal structures, ready to receive radio light from the entire universe. Then we got to the ugly part: unraveling tangled up cables so that we could sort out the inputs to our state-of-the-art radio-sealed container with all of the back-end electronics. (Thanks to SKA Africa for that one!)

Soooooo many antennaaaaaas...

Examining the feed-throughs, about to open the container

When we got “home,” we started our communal dinners that would last throughout the trip. Pat, the wizard-tech from Charlottesville, coordinated much of that. That woman is as fierce and skillful in the kitchen as she is in the lab and in the field!

I absolutely had to shower, as I had grit from the Karoo lodged in every pore of my body at that point. However, I had already experienced the “water situation.” The well water had been “compromised.” Really, it reeked of rotten eggs. But I desperately needed to clean off, so I held my nose, tried to think of how much I love hard-boiled eggs, and took my sulfuric shower before passing out.

June 25-June 26: Gettin ‘er dun… or something

There were the cables. Oh MY there were cables. 500-foot-long ropes of dual-coaxial cable to take out to all the new antennas. With Rich and Pat busy inspecting groundscreens and the UPenn/Berkeley crew building the correlator inside the hut, I decided to try and cable the new antennas by myself. I even devised a (mostly) clever way of handling the heavy, awkward spools as I pulled the coax in to the center of the array. Though I was quite proud of it, the job was sped up by a factor of several when Ray and Zulu came to my aide, holding the spool on a slowly straining pole while gracefully looping the slack across the desert. Still, I laid down a LOT of cable that second day, and once again passed out almost as soon as we had eaten dinner.

Give me your scrap parts, and I will build something! It even worked, as long as the cable wasn't already hopelessly tangled on the reel.

At some point, someone thought it was a good idea to let me drive. Remember now, I’m used to driving on the left side of the car on the right side of the road. This was the right side of the bakkie on the left side of the dirt path. I have to admit, it was unnerving at first, but I got used to it. So much so that when I picked up my car in Virginia weeks later, I actually had to stop and remind myself what side of the road to be on! I have yet to drive on “the other side” in actual traffic, so I don’t think my trials are over yet.

KAT-7 in the rearview mirror, and cool iron-rich rocks out the window.

Once the cables were settled, it was time to put out the actual dipoles. Oh, and there were SO many dipoles that had been lovingly assembled by team 1. It was like a waiting army of copper and aluminum, an army for science! Of course, we had to find a way to get them safely from the antenna assembly building to the site, and somehow my advisor and I jury-rigged a way to do this.

It's a beautiful sight.

We made it mostly safely over the washboard roads

In all of this, I got to talk to Rich, my advisor, for hours on end as we inspected groundscreens and dipoles. We riffed on each other all day, New York attitude vs. Pittsburgh attitude, and we had a friendly competition of who could do each task faster and better. That kind of goofing around was one of the highlights of the trip. You get to play around a bit more when running around a desert, rather than meeting in an office. Think scientists and engineers are all stuffy and boring? Yeah, think again. Although, I did get a bit nervous when he jumped into the open back of the trailer and thumped for me to start driving around the array. “Don’t let advisor fall off truck… don’t let advisor fall of truck… don’t let advisor fall off truck before you graduate!”

As you can imagine… I did NOT lose my advisor in the desert. More to come!

Hello, dear astronomy enthusiasts and friends and followers and encirclers…

This month has been heavy on GET STUFF DONE, but I’m taking a much needed break this weekend for Dragon*Con in Atlanta. This is the East Coast’s biggest sci-fi, fantasy, geek, nerd, etc. convention. I hope you are coming as well!

My only official event this year is the pre-Dragon*Con Star Party, put on by the Atlanta Skeptics in honor of Jeff Medkeff, a brilliant and active astronomer who succumbed to cancer a few years ago. So, we’ll be celebrating the night sky, the universe, and raising money to kick cancer’s butt. (Metaphorically speaking.) If you have a ticket, then I look forward to seeing you there! Unless you cannot come, in which case, get in touch with the organizers so that someone on the very long wait list can make it. There will be telescopes, green lasers, a singing Geo, astronomers, and some special activities that I have planned. You’ll just have to wait and see!

For the rest of the Con, I get to play geeky nerd fangirl. I’ll probably be spending time around the Skeptic, Science, Space, and Podcasting tracks, as well as exploring some of my favorite sci-fi goodness with Tim. I can say that we’ll be at the live showing of Doctor Who on Saturday night dressed as different incarnations of the Doctor. I’m also hoping to finish an astronomy-pun-themed Tron costume, so look out for that as well.

I’ll be updating Twitter and Google+ as I go along, in case you want to find me there or live vicariously through my tweets if you cannot make it. (I feel your pain. I had to sit out last year!)

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…

As we wait for a truck to deliver our goodies to the SKA office, I lie in the back of our empty trailer, staring at the sky which is, for the first time this trip, starting to clear. I admire the first quarter moon in the sky…. wait, what? It’s late morning, why the hell am I seeing the first qua…. oooooOOOOOoooooo. Right, Southern Hemisphere! It’s a nearly 3rd quarter moon, but to me, having lived my whole life in the Northern Hemisphere, it seems “backwards!” Finally, I get my first taste of visual astronomy below the equator. I can only hope that the Karoo is not as cloudy as Cape Town has been so that I can see the night sky.

"Every planet has a north..."

So, finally, this little truck arrives, way too little to have all of our stuff. It has one crate in it, and no jack or lift or anything. Oh, and we have to follow him to the airport to confirm and pick up the rest. What can we do put cross our fingers and hop in the truck, and follow him to the FedEx building at the airport! There were indeed two crates after all, and Pat confirmed that they were ours. The driver of the small truck turned out to be rather skillful in using a crate jack to maneuver our two crates into the tow trailer attached to our bakkie (aka, pickup truck) so that they just fit! Then we went around to the other side of the airport for the boxes, and discovered that two had been grouped into a bag so that it seemed like just four. FINALLY, we could breathe a sigh of relief! All our parts are here. We can build a 64-element array! And so, we head east with our prize.

The landscape slowly changed from lush and green, to sort of green-ish, to desert brown as we drove into the Northern Cape and into the Karoo. We ate at a fast food chain called Wimpy’s, which we later decided would never go over in the US on account of the name. As the day gives way to night, my face is literally pressed up on the glass of the truck as I marvel at the stars. Well, for a few seconds before my breath fogs up the glass. For the first time in several years, I am completely LOST among alien constellations! But you have to get out of the car to see the Milky Way is all of its dust-lane-ridden, bulgy, beautiful splendor. I finally get that chance when we reach the field station just a little ways from the telescope site for a quick visit with the site manager. What can I say? I was stunned…

(Since you couldn’t be there, enjoy this lovely time lapse video of the sky from Australia by Alex Cherney, which I saw on Bad Astronomy.)

Ocean Sky from Alex Cherney on Vimeo.

Finally, we make it to site, and damn, it is cold! I move into my little third of a trailer with my space heater and electric blanket, and settle in for the night before I finally get to see the southern twin of the array that I’ve been using in Green Bank for years.

Stay tuned for more of the story interspersed with what I hope to be a regular blogging schedule on my usual favorite topics!