dear blog

dear blog,

i do think about you, sweet blog.   i think about things i'd like to write and post and share and comment on, and then i cant seem to find the time.   it's some combination of my new(ish) job, that has me doing outreachy type things for the AAO during my days, and rekindling a couple old hobbies, that has taken my attention away from you.

i'll try to do better.  i want to do better.   in fact, i want to move you to a different host and redesign your look a bit. i've talked about this before, but i promise i will dedicate time and take action to do this soon. maybe some kind soul will even help (actually, i would pay them for their skills and time).
 
i have some good photos and stories in the works to post to you soon, so please be patient.  until then, old friend, to tide you over here are a few photos from last week when i was working in new zealand, so that you dont forget me.

(upsidedown) orion and a bright jupiter (lower right)

In the Land of the Long White Cloud

the southern cross over the ocean

thanks for your continued dedication :)

astropixie

cosmic inflation

did you hear about the big physics news that came out this week?  a "spectacular" discovery showing observations consistent with the illusive theory of cosmic inflation?

the topic is subtle, but the PhD comic below does a fantastic job of explaining the discovery.

as with any science experiment, i will let myself get much more excited when another experiment verifies the result, but in the meantime,  there's a fascinating discussion happening on a facebook page created just before the press release came out.  there are many eminent physicists taking part in the discussion, and it seems like an interesting avenue for real scientific debate in the future.

fly through all the galaxies!

the GAMA survey is one of the research projects i work on - studying how characteristics of hundreds of thousands of galaxies depend on the types of neighbourhoods they live in, how much gas they have, how many stars they have, etc.

some colleagues produced this fly through tour of all the galaxies in the survey, and it has been getting some press today.  

Fly through of the GAMA Galaxy Catalogue from ICRAR on Vimeo.

the dailymail (?!) even features some GIFs.  somehow it feels like the survey is officially a success now :)

dubai galactica

dubai looks like such a surreal city.   wonder if i'll visit one day.

this photo is a montage of different images taken by photographer daniel cheong.  he took the photo of dubai's buildings and fog in may and the milky way from reunion island in july.  

Photo by Daniel Cheong