i was in perth, western australia last week for a GAMA group meeting. i stayed for some of the weekend to do a bit of exploring as well. during my last visit, i went north to see the pinnacles. this time, i went west to explore rottnest island.
the oddly-named island is just another ridiculously gorgeous coastal part of australia - this time with ship wrecks, a massive osprey nest, and quokkas, in addition to 63 beaches!
cars are not allowed on the 11 km wide island, so we rented some bikes and rode all around. that's a lighthouse in the background, although it almost looks like a shuttle launch pad from this distance!
we rode a lap around the island and then came back to this spot to swim. to the left in the photo below is a rusted old ship wreck. before jumping in, we watched two dolphins jump around in the water along the coast!
there have been an unusually high number of shark attacks off the coast of western australia over the last year, but there were still surfers out in the waters.
we also spotted a huge osprey nest on top of this tiny rock island!
luckily, the air was calm during our visit, but the wind can get VERY strong, as demonstrated by these permanently bent and stripped trees!
the ashes is a long series of cricket matches played between england and australia every 18 to 30 months (?). i dont understand cricket. i dont understand it so much that i have no idea why the ashes is actually a series of test cricket matches instead of just regular cricket.
i know the matches can last for days and i know that my friends in england, who care about cricket, are very excited that im in australia right now. apparently they feel i am somehow obliged to be happy (and brag?) about england's recent performance.
anyway, while i lived in england i was too excited by all the soccer games i could watch to bother paying any attention to learning the rules of cricket or rugby. notice how i called it soccer instead of football? thats because here in australia the word football could potentially mean like 3 different sports, so i've cut out all ambiguity and gone back to calling my favorite sport simply soccer!
i'm at a loss when it comes to popular sports in australia because there is rugby league, rugby union, cricket (and apparently test cricket), aussie rules football, and good old soccer. this SMBC cartoon summarizes my knowledge... just substitute any of the above for football except, of course, soccer.
an unexpected part of my position as "outreach officer" has been inheriting the role of "press officer" for the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO). this isnt something i want to spend too much time on, but i do enjoy the occasional challenge of turning technical science results into fun stories accessible to media sources and a more general audience.
for this joint release, i received help and advice from a very experienced science communicator and press officer in western australia, pete wheeler. much appreciated! i've learned a lot about the process of putting together the best material and advertising it properly to international media, as these are not things i've learned in my normal scientific training.
but definitely my favourite part has been the writing of the story to go with work led by AAO astronomer Ángel López-Sánchez. so here you go - new science!
Multiwavelength image of the galaxies NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 combining optical and near-infrared data (light blue, yellow, orange), ultraviolet data (dark blue), mid-infrared data (red), and radio data (green).
A team of Australian and Spanish astronomers have caught a greedy galaxy gobbling on its neighbours and leaving crumbs of evidence about its dietary past.
Galaxies grow by churning loose gas from their surroundings into new stars, or by swallowing neighbouring galaxies whole. However, they normally leave very few traces of their cannibalistic habits.
A study published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) not only reveals a spiral galaxy devouring a nearby compact dwarf galaxy, but shows evidence of its past galactic snacks in unprecedented detail.
Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) and Macquarie University astrophysicist, Ángel R. López-Sánchez, and his collaborators have been studying the galaxy NGC 1512 to see if its chemical story matches its physical appearance.
The team of researchers used the unique capabilities of the 3.9-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT), near Coonabarabran, New South Wales, to measure the level of chemical enrichment in the gas across the entire face of NGC 1512.
Chemical enrichment occurs when stars churn the hydrogen and helium from the Big Bang into heavier elements through nuclear reactions at their cores. These new elements are released back into space when the stars die, enriching the surrounding gas with chemicals like oxygen, which the team measured.
“We were expecting to find fresh gas or gas enriched at the same level as that of the galaxy being consumed, but were surprised to find the gases were actually the remnants of galaxies swallowed earlier,” Dr López-Sánchez said.
“The diffuse gas in the outer regions of NGC 1512 is not the pristine gas created in the Big Bang but is gas that has already been processed by previous generations of stars.”
CSIRO's Australia Telescope Compact Array, a powerful 6-km diameter radio interferometer located in eastern Australia, was used to detect large amounts of cold hydrogen gas that extends way beyond the stellar disk of the spiral galaxy NGC 1512.
"The dense pockets of hydrogen gas in the outer disk of NGC 1512 accurately pin-point regions of active star formation", said CSIRO's Dr Baerbel Koribalski, a member of the research collaboration.
When this finding was examined in combination with radio and ultraviolet observations the scientists concluded that the rich gas being processed into new stars did not come from the inner regions of the galaxy either. Instead, the gas was likely absorbed by the galaxy over its lifetime as NGC 1512 accreted other, smaller galaxies around it.
Dr Tobias Westmeier, from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Perth, said that while galaxy cannibalism has been known for many years, this is the first time that it has been observed in such fine detail.
“By using observations from both ground and space based telescopes we were able to piece together a detailed history for this galaxy and better understand how interactions and mergers with other galaxies have affected its evolution and the rate at which it formed stars,” he said.
The team’s successful and novel approach to investigating how galaxies grow is being used in a new program to further refine the best models of galaxy evolution.
For this work the astronomers used spectroscopic data from the AAT at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia to measure the chemical distribution around the galaxies. They identified the diffuse gas around the dual galaxy system using Australian Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) radio observations. In addition, they identified regions of new star formation with data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) orbiting space telescope.
“The unique combination of these data provide a very powerful tool to disentangle the nature and evolution of galaxies,” said Dr López-Sánchez.
“We will observe several more galaxies using the same proven techniques to improve our understanding of the past behaviour of galaxies in the local Universe.”
A chemical enrichment map of the NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 galaxy system showing the amount of oxygen gas in the star-forming regions around the two galaxies.
i have returned to australia after a recent round of travel to europe. this venture was scientifically productive, but another interesting sequence of events happened that i didnt realize until they were almost finished. of course, these events revolved around the world cup!
throughout the course of this tournament, i watched an australia game while in australia, an england game while in england, a croatia game from croatia, and the swiss play their quarterfinal match from switzerland! if we ignore the fact that the home teams of each of those matches lost, it was a pretty great series of experiences!
the populations of taiwan and australia are roughly equal at 23 million people, yet taiwan is an island 500 km (310 mi) long and 200km across, while mainland australia is over 7.5 million square kilometers! taiwan has roughly 200 professional astronomers compared to australia's 500.
after my talk yesterday, there was a reception with an array of snacks set out to welcome a mexican concert pianist who gave an amazing piano recital! the event was to honor mexican and tawainese relations as they move forward to build a telescope in mexico with the aim of detecting small (~1 km diameter) objects in the Kuiper Belt at the edge of our solar system.
listening to piano music in a lovely recital hall is now officially my favorite way to relax after giving a talk.
my hosts then took me out to dinner to a very famous dumpling restaurant in taipei city. there were many people standing outside waiting and i thought we would never get into the tiny place, but they took our table of six up and up and up 5 flights of stairs to a room with a large table!
the food was incredible! some of the steamed dumplings actually had soup inside so they morphed their shape as i picked them up with my chopsticks, dipped them in the vinegar, soy sauce, and ginger mixture, and placed them on my spoon to cool. the bite was an explosion of goodness.
i was so entranced by the textures and flavours of the food and the scientific conversation, that i forgot to take any photos! i realized this at the end of the meal and so my hosts insisted on ordering another round of red bean dessert buns so they could take this photo for me ;)
there was an annular solar eclipse this morning, visible along a thin strip in northern australia. luckily, most of australia could see the sun partially blocked by the moon, and i went on live TV to talk about the event to ABC reporters!
live on the news, talking about the solar eclipse! (photo credit: henry lee)
big thanks to henry lee for putting together the above image, which includes a screen shot of the ABC news program and a pinhole camera shot of the partial eclipse in progress.
after my news spot, i rushed outside with my eclipse glasses to see the event for myself. here's a shot of the maximum partial eclipse that we could see in sydney. you can see a dark sunspot near the top of the sun!
last night i made a simple pinhole camera to play with today, by poking holes in a postcard. if on any day you poke a small hole in a piece of paper and project sunlight
through the hole onto a surface, you will see a small circular image of the sun.
normally the image of the sun will be circular (because of the shape of the sun, not because of the shape of the hole!), but during an eclipse, while the moon is
eating away at some of the sun, the projected image looks like little pacmans. do you see them?
so far my favorite photo of the event comes from sydney astronomer and photographer geoff sims, who traveled out to western australia to capture the distorted, squishy sun as it rose just above the horizon, covered by the moon.
there are so many events happening today around sydney in honor of australia day that i just cant keep up. i managed to walk to the harbour to watch the ferrython. there were a lot of boats of all sizes racing under the harbour bridge! this photo is a hint of the event before the real chaos began, but i like it...
then i returned home to eat lunch and decided that its too bad its not a holiday in the rest of the world, because i keep getting "urgent" work emails! hmph.
i'm visiting the city of perth in western australia right now. i work on projects with a few different groups of astronomers here, so i decided to make an extended visit to progress those projects, give a talk, and explore a bit of western australia!
over the weekend we had a lovely BBQ at matilda bay, where you could see the city center in the distance.
we then set off the next day on a short road trip to visit the pinnacles desert area three hours north of perth.
it's unclear exactly how these rocks formed, but it happened after a series of events over a long, long period of time. it's also interesting that they occupy a relatively small area out in the desert of western australia.
we had a lot of photographic fun.
i forgot to bring my hat from sydney, so i purchased one at a shop on our way to the desert. the ribbon read "merry christmas!" this might be my holiday card this year :)
it was incredibly windy while we were out there and we were occasionally, painfully sandblasted! the benefit of the wind was the mystical atmosphere the sandstorms created.
some of the pinnacles reminded me of other things.
and if only i was a rock star, i'd have a nice photo to go with the CD, thanks to aaron's photography!
i'm pleased to announce that after the unexpected shock of being flung into the job market a few months ago, i have accepted a "super science fellowship" to work with the folks at the australian astronomical observatory near sydney, australia! woo hoo! (i'd say "yeehaw" but i dont think thats the proper phrase to use!)
primarily, i will be using data from the extensive multi-wavelength GAMA survey to look at the star formation history of the universe and to see how star formation in galaxies behaves as a function of stellar mass, morphology, and environment, as well as continuing some ongoing projects that i find interesting.
i'll be moving down under around november this year and fully welcome any tips about moving to australia or suggestions about cool neighborhoods to live in around sydney. i'm not really looking forward to another round of moving across the world and dealing with visa issues, etc... but i am certainly looking forward to exploring a new continent and mashing up my english accent even more than it already is!
someone suggested that australia is a mix of english and texan culture, which is an intriguing statement. i hope it combines the outdoorsy adventurousness and tasty beverage aspects, and not the conservative, judgmental, moaning-about-the-weather parts.
i feel like with the fantastic title of super scientist, i should be entitled to wear some sort of super hero outfit, but apparently capes are not advised ;(
i helped organize a Women in Astronomy Workshop for the astronomical society of australia that took place in sydney this past friday the 13th of may. a major goal of the workshop was to raise awareness of general issues that face women, who ultimately drop out of the field in huge numbers within a few years of getting a PhD, and work towards finding solutions that can be applied by institutions and individuals to retain women in the profession and help them succeed.
so what is the problem exactly? the good news is that half the students attaining undergraduate science degrees from universities are women. not everyone is interested in attaining a degree beyond a bachelors degree, and that is absolutely reasonable, but of those that choose to pursue a PhD, roughly 40% are women (in australia anyway, the percentage worldwide is probably between 30% and 40% for astronomy). but within a few years of getting a PhD the percentage of participating women starts dropping dramatically, such that less than 8% of science professors are women and less than 4% of the top level positions at science institutions, universities, and observatories are appointed to women. from a management standpoint, it is an incredibly poor business practice to invest in the training of so many women only to lose all their knowledge, expertise, and training within a few short years.
keep in mind that this isnt a problem unique to astronomy or even academia: in the corporate sector, women hold something like 15% of the highest positions and board seats, and of all the people in parliament in the world, only 13% are women (source: see video below). it is not possible just simply to say - women have babies and then decide to drop out of their profession. this is true for some, partially because there is not yet adequate support and flexibility to help parents get back into the swing of things after such a career break, but overall the reasons are much more complex and not discussed openly enough, in my opinion.
one point made at the workshop that i had not fully appreciated before is that women tend not to say things in meetings (big or small) unless they are almost certain that what they are about to say is absolutely "correct." it is more common for men to throw out speculative ideas without regard to whether someone might show they are wrong, or without considering whether their statement might hold up an otherwise very tight meeting agenda.
one of the many reasons for this might be something called "the imposter syndrome," which affects most people to some degree, but much more often women, and potentially to a career-debilitating degree. the imposter syndrome describes the fear or worry that eventually someone will figure you out and realize you're not actually as smart and capable as they think you are! this can prevent you from negotiating contracts, asking for promotions, or applying for grants or positions that you think you probably wont get. of course women and men are equally capable, but the trouble is, you can never get something you don't apply/ask for, and the numbers show that men more often ask for promotions and apply for grants than women.
i recognize that it is my responsibility to speak up at meetings and make a vocal contribution of substance in order to be noticed, heard, acknowledged and appreciated, but i have to admit that it's almost always a challenge. when i attend a meeting or listen to a talk and a question or comment pops into my mind, inevitably my heart pounds loudly and i feel myself shaking a little from nerves over the prospect of speaking out to the group. you'd think after attaining a PhD, thinking about this astronomy stuff for so many years, and genuinely believing that i have ideas to offer the discussion, i would have gotten over these feelings, right? wrong. i still have to force myself to be brave and make the statement, to let my face turn beet red and risk sounding unknowledgeable or stupid.
i know i'm not the only one with these feelings and fears and the only way to help get over them is to be aware of them, admit them, talk about them, and have courage (i hope!)! that is part of what the workshop was about. almost 70 people showed up last friday, including several heads of university astronomy groups and the directors of observatories. considering there are only about 400 professional astronomers in australia, i thought the turn out was a great success! there were many female PhD students present, but the audience was noticeably lacking young male PhD students.
unfortunately, i think the tendency for most people is to think "well, i'm not sexist (or racist, etc...) and i don't understand how anyone could openly express such discrimination, so i don't have anything to gain by attending such a workshop."
it's not enough just to believe that you do not practice these behaviours and then ignore the issues entirely, because we all have "unconscious biases" and many of your colleagues are systematicallysuffering because of them. we need to be aware of these biases in order to change the current state of career progression and not lose female talent from continuing along the academic (or corporate or political) pipeline.
instead of going on about more potential problems that lead to the decreased number of women at the highest levels, i will refer you to the video below for some other issues, and move on to sharing some practical suggestions that came out of the workshop that can be implemented by institutions and individuals.
action points for institutions:
appoint diverse committee members to select speakers for conferences and recipients of awards and jobs. our unconscious natural tendency is to want to work with people who are like ourselves. this is mostly ok, or at least understandable, but ever notice, for example, how invited speakers at conferences are almost always men despite the fact that attendees are much more gender balanced? of course there are fewer women who have reached the career stage to give invited talks, but we have to start recognizing and encouraging and exposing the women that are in the field. diversifying selection committees is one way of taking action towards this goal.
supply childcare at professional meetings, especially national meetings, so that parents can also benefit from the community and the networking possibilities for themselves and their students. and since we all know that a lot of ideas and new collaborations happen at the pub and over dinner, offer a few evenings of childcare as well so parents can spend some time with contacts outside of the rigorous daily conference sessions.
offer more flexible working arrangementsand small grants to encourage mothers and fathers to return to work while dealing with all the unpredictable time frames of children. examples: if you are advertising a position and it is possible to hire someone at part time, mention that in the ad! monash university offers a populate and publish maternity leave grant (what a name!?!). offer an option to take unpaid holidays for school breaks, provide onsite childcare, support a child friendly work environment (and tell employees!).
encourage employees at all levels to participate in organized mentoring programs. if there is no program in place, develop one. dont make the mistake of assuming that "hard work and merit" are the only factors necessary for advancement for every individual. people also need encouragement and mentoring.
in applications, ask for selected 5 years of publications, instead of just previous 5 years, to account for career breaks.
institute a double blind academic journal refereeing system. (can someone explain to me why this isnt already in place? that's not the only problem with the academic journal racket though.)
have open discussions about these issues inside your working groups!! encourage the acknowledgement of unconscious bias.
action points for individuals:
speak up at meetings (be brave), network broadly, find mentors, set goals, know when to say no, apply for things!! do not let people assume that just because you do a task once that you will always be responsible for it, especially if it isnt gaining you any prestige or career benefit! dont fear that because you say no you wont be "liked." the point is not to be liked, but to be respected.
goals should be specific, measurable, attractive to you, realistic, and time-framed (short- and long-term).
find mentors! seek senior members who can be active mentors (both men and women), or widespread university programs, and do this at every stage in your career! recognize who in your department or institution is useful, successful, powerful, and/or influential and get to know them! seek their advice and mentorship.
pay attention to words used when writing recommendation letters. (as a test, search through the adjectives you have written in a letter for a man and a letter for a woman. it was a telling exercise in unconscious bias for one speaker at the workshop)
use appropriate titles (Dr, Prof, etc...) consistently for all colleagues regardless of gender.
surround yourself with happy (not miserable) people in your working environment.
make sure your romantic partner is a real partner in every sense of the word.
be self aware of personal biases
please share any other ideas in the comments and i'll update this list if possible. for further reading, the american astronomical society provides a nice page of resources for all.
i'll leave you with yet another excellent TED talk by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg on "Why we have too few women leaders." she articulates some of the above, but also brings up several other very interesting points, including why it's true that "success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women."
UPDATE: if you're interested in this post, i recommend reading through the discussion happening inside the comments. i also encourage everyone to participate!
now it is morning time the next day. very early. i slept soundly for a few hours.
what i know: all people are safe. yay! firefighters are currently onsite at siding spring. they say there is some damage to facilities, but they have not assessed the extent.
Morning view via LCOGT
the sun has risen and the first images available show positive signs of buildings standing where we saw evidence of small fires last night. the main 4-meter telescope has survived the flame - which is good, as it is the designated fire evacuation area on the mountain.
here is a slower timelapse (from brad tucker) of the weather cameras outside the LCOGT telescope on SSO. it covers most of yesterday and last night after darkness hit:
is case youre not clear where siding spring is located, here's a map:
Location of Siding Spring Observatory, Australia (Credit: LCOGT)
thanks for all your feedback, everyone. i'll keep this page updated throughout the day.
UPDATE (08:00): the LCOGT cameras show the NSW rural fire service on site at siding spring.
the mayor of coona said this morning that the NSW RFS report the astronomer's lodge on site has been destroyed, but other buildings appear intact. if the scopes are operational, i'll take my tent to sleep in! ;) (well, only if i get official permission, of course...)
UPDATE (08:20): a photo from ryan unicomb, which must be an aerial shot from NSW RFS, but i'm not sure of their link (update: link). you can see the burned patches go right up to the telescopes - the top right shows the skymapper and the square box houses the 2.3 meter. not sure what the diagonal dark line indicates across that dome the dark diagonal line shows stairs going to the top of the building.
UPDATE (08:35): wow. this is/was the astronomer's lodge, where we slept and ate while observing. photo from NSW RFS:
UPDATE (09:00): from accounts i'm hearing, the structural destruction on the mountain is limited to the astronomer's lodge, the visitor's center, and a few of the staff homes. the telescope facilities are intact, some are responding to computer communication from remote locations, but i cannot give more details than that for now.
in preparation for this possibility, and because of the fires in mt stromlo ten years ago, some measures have been taken over the years to help reduce the damage of bush fires at siding spring. there have been controlled fires over the last six months, to rid the area of small fuel. also, the facilities have mesh installed to repel embers from spreading fires too rapidly.
NSW RFS have reported that about a dozen homes near siding spring have been destroyed. so sad.
UPDATE (09:10): the sydney morning herald's front page this morning quotes a witness as saying, "it looked like an atomic bomb":
UPDATE (09:30): for those who are not familiar with the siding spring observatory, the site is owned and operated by the australian national university in canberra. many telescopes are operated by the australian astronomical observatory (my employer) including the 4-meter anglo-australian telescope - the largest optical telescope in australia. here is a list of all the telescopes at siding spring:
ANU 2.3m Telescope
ANU Skymapper Telescope
Uppsala Near Earth Object Survey Telescope
3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope
United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope
Hat-South Telescope Network
Solaris Telescope
Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment – ROTSE
UNSW Automated Patrol Telescope
Faulkes Telescope South
i-Telescope.net
ANU 40 inch Telescope (decommissioned)
ANU 16 inch Telescope (decommissioned)
ANU 24 inch Telescope (decommissioned)
UPDATE (09:50): here is a photo of the destroyed director's cottage at SSO (from NSW RFS). the structure on the left is/was the astronomer's lodge. at the top right, you can see the UK schmid telescope and the faulkes south - where the webcams captured a lot of helpful images last night! you can see the pedestrian path in the foreground leading to the 4m AAT off to the right of the photo.
UPDATE (09:55): another shot of siding springs from NSW RFS (have i mentioned that they have been amazing and continue to fight the ongoing fire!). the massive AAT dome looks ok. the destroyed lodge is visible at left. still waiting for the "smoke to clear."
we are having a group meeting now to receive official updates on the situation at SSO. i'll update with what info i can!
UPDATE (10:45): there will be a two week downtime at siding spring while clean up commences and the full extent of the damage is assessed. some staff are on site now and reporting no obvious major damage to facilities and instrumentation (other than the housing structures i mentioned before).
a project i work on was scheduled to use the 4 m telescope tonight and for the next 3 nights! no data for us, but people are safe, and that's important.
observing will resume as soon as possible, when damage is fully assessed and cleaned.
UPDATE (11:05): the MOPRA telescope structure appears to be fine, but the building from which astronomers operate it has been damaged by the fires.
UPDATE (11:10): here is the current view of australia from space, thanks to chris hadfield, an astronaut currently on the international space station!!
UPDATE (11:35): here is an aerial shot of the visitor center at siding spring (from NSW RFS). it doesnt look like there is much structural damage from this photo, but there are black patches outside the main entrance that are likely due to fire damage. from reports i've heard, there was fire inside that was exstinguished this morning. i do not know the extent of the damage to the contents, yet.
UPDATE (11:44): there is a relevant article at the conversation with quotes from my self, nobel laureate brian schmidt, and astronomer michael brown.
UPDATE (12:55): the ANU will be holding a press conference at 13:15 (link).
- observatory closed for two weeks. do not try to visit.
- generators are providing power to essential services, and the switch over was smooth - good to systems which would have glitched if not turned off properly.
- unclear when roads to siding springs will reopen.
- ANU is assessing alternative accommodation for affected staff
- NSW deputy premier Andrew Stoner reports 28 homes around coonabarabran have been lost
- smoke from "Wambelong Fire" shot 14 km into the air!
UPDATE (13:45): watch ABC news here. (which includes an interview with AAO acting director, andrew hopkins, with completely blank book shelves behind him! haha - new office...)
UPDATE (14:49): just reminiscing a bit about working with the 4m AAT. at night, we use the telescope and the instruments. during the days, when we're not sleeping, we climb around enjoying the views. ::sigh::
double rainbow from the AAT catwalk
from the top of the AAT dome
UPDATE (13:00): the AAO website has released some new photos of siding spring via the NSW RFS. it's pretty amazing that the AAT dome looks so clean and there is still a lot of plant life remaining!
UPDATE (15:50): not how i was hoping the telescope would make front page news :(
UPDATE (16:00): brian schmidt remembers the devastating mt stromlo fires that hit canberra exactly ten years ago this week: link to article.
UPDATE (16:05): the MOPRA antenna does not appear to be damaged (visible at the top of the image below), but the support building (with the kitchen, bedrooms, bathroom and small office) is a pile of rubble. no CSIRO staff can access the site until tomorrow at the earliest.
UPDATE (17:00): the NSW Rural Fire Service confirmed 33 homes (and 50 sheds) lost due to the "wambelong" fire near coonabarabran and siding spring. some of these homes belong to people i consider friends. i'm very sad to report the news.
UPDATE (17:30): there are still some fires burning in the vicinity of coonabarabran, but the observatory is not under direct threat now. siding spring observatory is officially closed to everyone unless authorized by the rural fire service (including observatory staff). therefore all observing is suspended for two weeks (at least) and the full damage assessment is delayed until wednesday (it is currently monday late afternoon SSO local time). major telescope facilities appear to be ok and communication has been made with several of the computer systems from remote locations.
unless something major develops, i will not update this post anymore, because i have a major deadline tomorrow and i need to concentrate. THE SCIENCE WILL GO ON, despite the fact that i'm not getting the data from the AAT that i was scheduled to get over the next 4 nights :( i'll start another post about the situation when i have more info, and the AAO website will keep updated.
as a final reflection, please look at beautiful photos, taken by AAO's angel lopez-sanchez, of SSO between 2007 and 2012: link HERE.
and finally, a stunning panoramic image taken 4 months ago of the milky way over siding spring and the 4-meter anglo-australian telescope, by AAO's jamie gilbert.
the milky way over siding spring (credit: jamie gilbert)
