Thursday, January 24, 2008

Lowell Observatory

The last observatory on my tour is Lowell. I saw several of their telescopes and their instruments including a great spectrograph.

The telescope that discovered Pluto ...

and it's cool wooden and stone dome.

Now off to Phoenix and the trip home.

Cheers,
Jeff

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer

Hi All,

Today I had another relaxing start to the day. A nice coffee and lunch. I then
visited the most complicated observatory I have ever seen.

Even though I understand the basics of this instrument it gave me a bigger headache the more I learned about it because it is sooooo complicated.

Amazing! This is so complicated there is a full time mathematician working on the calculations involved ... ooh here comes that headache again.

Tomorrow ... Lowell Observatory, the home of the dwarf planet Pluto discovery telescope.

Cheers,
Jeff

The Grand Canyon

Today I had a more relaxed day and started with my first greasy diner breakfast. It was an experience that I won't repeat :P

I headed out to the grand canyon and spent a few hours taking it in. It is hard to understand how big it really is. It wasn't until I saw people on mules way down in the canyon that looked like fleas that I could see how deep it was.

Tomorrow, on to the last observatories.

Cheers,
Jeff

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Arizona Snowbowl and Lowell Observatory


Today I started the day skiing at Arizona Snowbowl. The snow was not great and my legs got sore quickly in the icy conditions.

Then I went to a Mars night at Lowell Observatory,

and saw Mars through the telescope Lowell used to study Mars.

I was happy as a pig in mud mixing with the staff at Lowell :)

Tomorrow, The Grand Canyon.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Meteor Crater and the Petrified Forest


Meteor Crater is the huge hole behind me :P It was so cold today that when I washed my hands
in the carpark the water froze on the ground.

The petrified forest was an entire forest turned to stone.

I had the feeling I was being watched!

Coloured mountains ...

Ancient Petroglyphs ...

An upgrade on my Mazda 6 on route 66?

Tomorrow, can you guess? ... More skiing :)

Friday, January 18, 2008

Whipple Observatory and on to Flagstaff


As the moon watches me run around like a mad man across America I headed to observatory number 11, Whipple Observatory.

I got a look around the gamma ray telescopes and walked away with another arm full of goodies :)

Then I hit the road for about 6 hours and drove trough Phoenix to snow covered Flagstaff. Hmm I think this calls for another day of skiing :)

Cheers,
Jeff

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Kitt Peak Observatory


I spent a day driving into Arizona and relaxing into Tucson. Over the last two days I have been visiting Kitt Peak Observatory.

I spent most of the day touring the world's largest solar telescope and filming the adaptive optics system.

The next day I visited the University of Arizona and the Astronomy educators there. Then I went back to Kitt Peak for the night tour (watching the sunset).

The telescopes came to life around us.

We enjoyed some great views.

Off to Whipple observatory tomorrow and then on to Flagstaff.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Apache Point and National Solar Observatories


Today I went to Apache Point Observatory and spent most of the day filming and interviewing the astronomers. Below an operator places optic fibers in place for spectroscopy tonight.

Just one of the many telescopes.

Then I spent the rest of the day back at the national solar observatory. I'm becoming a regular at lunch in their cafeteria.

Now off to Las Cruces for the night and then on to Arizona and observatory number 10.

Cheers :P

Ski Apache


Had a wonderful day skiing at Ski Apache. The snow wasn't the best as they have not had a fall of snow for a while but it was like the snow i've seen in Australia in a bad season. It was still fun and my skiing is getting much better although my legs couldn't keep up with me for the whole day. I need to do more exercise!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Back to Alamagordo

Today I headed back to Alamagordo and saw a lava flow in the Valley of Fires.

Saw the rockets at White Sands Missile Range and visited the Space Museum in Alamagordo for a history of space and rocketry lesson.

Tomorrow I'm off for a day of skiing at Ski Apache.

Back soon :)

Magdalena Ridge Observatory and the VLA

My wonderful host Lisa from NRAO organised us a great day touring observatories. First we stopped on the highest mountain I have ever been on (over 10000 feet) to visit the Magdalena Ridge Observatory.

The telescope has one of the mirrors originally made for the Hubble Space Telescope and moves fast enough to track missiles launched at the nearby White Sands Missile range by the military.

We then headed to the Very Large Array (VLA) and first saw the dishes for the ALMA array in Chile.

The view from the control room was amazing with all the dishes observing one object.

Here is one of the 27 dishes.

Then we got t climb through a dish and dissect it.

Followed by a great steak (yum). Thanks Lisa.

National Solar Observatory

Next I drove to El Paso, stayed the night and drove on into New Mexico. Then I visited the national solar observatory at where else but Sunspot New Mexico.

There is more of this telescope below the ground than above.

I checked out their instruments like this adaptive optics system.

There were more things on this mountain looking at the Sun than I could have imagined.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Austin, Fort Davis and McDonald Observatory, Texas

Over the last few days:

I spent two days in Austin at the start of the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society. I attended some educator sessions, met many people I had emailed in the past so I put faces to names. I also got lots of free books, DVD's, etc which I can't get in Australia.

I drove to fort Davis today in a Mazda 6 I have hired, I went to the evening star viewing at the McDonald visitors center and camped that night in Fort Davis.

I toured the telescopes the next day up on the mountain including the old ...

... one of the largest in the world and,

the people behind the scenes.

Cheers,
Jeff

Friday, January 4, 2008

Palomar Observatory

Today visited Palomar mountain.

I filmed with the Schmidt telescope and posed as Edwin Hubble did long ago.

I then checked out the size of the mirror for the 5.1m Hale telescope.

and checked out the telescope with Scott.

Well now I've seen the telescopes that have discovered the size of the universe, the expansion of the universe, dwarf planets, extra-solar planets, quasars, magnetic fields in sunspots and many more. It's basically most of the history of modern astronomy. Just right for a geek like me :P

Cheers,
Jeff

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Parks, Skiing, Camping and Mt. Wilson

Over the last few days I have had a great time. Time to have a bit of a break from visiting observatories and have a bit of a holiday.


On the way out to Sequoia NP I spotted this cute fireplace.


I had to buy chains for the frosty roads.


I had a sunny day unlike the rest of California under the clouds below.


The largest tree in the world.


My camp site at Yosemite.


I had a day of skiing at Badgers Pass.


The great view of Yosemite as I left.

Now back to LA for the next day at Mt. Wilson.


The highlights were the Hooker 100" that changed the world forever. Hubble used it to discover other galaxies and that the universe is expanding.


The 150 foot solar telescope that did most of the early work on the properties of the Sun.

I did some filming at this observatory and I'll have the clips on my site later.

Until next time, Cheers :)