Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
high atop the parkes radio dish
during the routine maintenance period this week, we got to climb high up to the focus cabin of the parkes radio dish to see what the receivers that we are using to collect data actually look like!
to get to the focus cabin, first we have to go onto the dish (if only i had a cup of tea ;)
up there is where we're climbing!
the incoming signal from a distant source bounces off the dish and gets focused up where the receivers collect the signal. radio waves are electromagnetic radiation, just like light you see with your eye, but they have longer wavelengths and carry less energy. any electromagnetic signal with a wavelength over 1 millimeter is a radio wave.
since radio waves are much weaker than optical light, the signal needs to be amplified through a whole series of electronics that i honestly don't completely understand. but i'll show you some photos anyway ;)
happily up at the focus cabin!
the cabin has two stories - it doesnt look so big from way down on the ground!
the receiver you can see the top of in the photo above looks like this:
the engineer who is giving up our tour has a last name of armstrong, and in the true aussie fashion of shortening words and giving everyone nicknames, they call him "army" :)
the multi-beam receiver we are using this week is this beast, which is kept at a cool temperature of 18 Kelvin (-255 Celsius = -427 Fahrenheit!).
of course we climbed on top of the focus cabin to enjoy the view...
and then climbed back down.
to get to the focus cabin, first we have to go onto the dish (if only i had a cup of tea ;)
up there is where we're climbing!
the incoming signal from a distant source bounces off the dish and gets focused up where the receivers collect the signal. radio waves are electromagnetic radiation, just like light you see with your eye, but they have longer wavelengths and carry less energy. any electromagnetic signal with a wavelength over 1 millimeter is a radio wave.
since radio waves are much weaker than optical light, the signal needs to be amplified through a whole series of electronics that i honestly don't completely understand. but i'll show you some photos anyway ;)
happily up at the focus cabin!
the cabin has two stories - it doesnt look so big from way down on the ground!
the receiver you can see the top of in the photo above looks like this:
the engineer who is giving up our tour has a last name of armstrong, and in the true aussie fashion of shortening words and giving everyone nicknames, they call him "army" :)
the multi-beam receiver we are using this week is this beast, which is kept at a cool temperature of 18 Kelvin (-255 Celsius = -427 Fahrenheit!).
of course we climbed on top of the focus cabin to enjoy the view...
and then climbed back down.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
mystery "shelf"
so, i need a little help with this one. in the women's shower at the astronomers lodge of parkes observatory, there is an odd feature. see in the photo below, the little shelf down low? well, it's not flat at all. in fact, its at such a steep angle that you cannot rest anything on it.
the other little shelf was full, so i went to place my soap on that dish, but noticed it's steep angle and thought - huh? and then wondered why there would be a shelf so low anyway?
so my question is - what the heck is that thing for?
the other little shelf was full, so i went to place my soap on that dish, but noticed it's steep angle and thought - huh? and then wondered why there would be a shelf so low anyway?
so my question is - what the heck is that thing for?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
"the dish"
this week i'm about 6 hours west of sydney near a town called parkes where the 64-meter parkes radio observatory lives.
parkes is featured in an australian film called the dish that was released in 2000. the movie didnt do very well in the US and i have to blame poor advertising, because it's a great movie! if you havent seen it, i highly recommend it! it's definitely one of my favorite science-y films and it fantastically highlights hilarious australian humour! here's a trailer:
they shot the film on location and used the original control room, which nowadays looks like this:
that room still houses the correlators and computer equipment, but is no longer where astronomers sit to control the telescope. instead, we sit one floor below. here we are in the current control room, watching the dish under the dish late on my first night of this observing run!
an interesting safety feature of operating this telescope these days is this device.
the counter goes up to 15 minutes and some time before that happens, you have to push the green button or else a very unpleasant alarm goes off and a whole series of automated safety precautions is activated! it's kind of a fun game on these long observing stretches, as radio observations do not require much work at all compared to using optical telescopes! and the whole process reminds me of the tv show lost.
and yes, when i visited the dish last year i got to go on a hayride!
(if you don't know what i mean by this... watch the movie! ;)
parkes is featured in an australian film called the dish that was released in 2000. the movie didnt do very well in the US and i have to blame poor advertising, because it's a great movie! if you havent seen it, i highly recommend it! it's definitely one of my favorite science-y films and it fantastically highlights hilarious australian humour! here's a trailer:
they shot the film on location and used the original control room, which nowadays looks like this:
that room still houses the correlators and computer equipment, but is no longer where astronomers sit to control the telescope. instead, we sit one floor below. here we are in the current control room, watching the dish under the dish late on my first night of this observing run!
an interesting safety feature of operating this telescope these days is this device.
the counter goes up to 15 minutes and some time before that happens, you have to push the green button or else a very unpleasant alarm goes off and a whole series of automated safety precautions is activated! it's kind of a fun game on these long observing stretches, as radio observations do not require much work at all compared to using optical telescopes! and the whole process reminds me of the tv show lost.
and yes, when i visited the dish last year i got to go on a hayride!
(if you don't know what i mean by this... watch the movie! ;)
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
sixty symbols does the LHC
brady and professor ed copeland recently visited the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near geneva for sixty symbols.
the main video in the series (click here) gives an overview of the entire project, but i wanted to share this video about the CMS experiment:
ed is absolutely adorable when he sees the detector for the very first time, as captured here ;)
the main video in the series (click here) gives an overview of the entire project, but i wanted to share this video about the CMS experiment:
ed is absolutely adorable when he sees the detector for the very first time, as captured here ;)
Monday, March 26, 2012
jupiter, the moon, venus, and the dish
here's a lovely view just after tonight's sunset at the parkes radio dish. from left to right is jupiter, the moon, venus, and the dish.
i think the planets and the moon look like a little koala together ;)
i think the planets and the moon look like a little koala together ;)
all the stars
a nice moment from calvin and hobbes:
"Look at all the stars! The Universe just goes out forever and ever!"
brought to me by scipsy
"Look at all the stars! The Universe just goes out forever and ever!"
brought to me by scipsy
Saturday, March 24, 2012
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