Given the absolutely gorgeous weather last week, I set up a mountain biking event for Sunday morning at Walnut Creek Park (just south of town). When Sunday morning arrived, it was just me left out of the 3 people going, but I set off anyways. I opted to ride to the trails instead of driving there. I hopped on my XC bike, pedaling south. It rained a bit as I started going, but fortunately cleared up after a few miles. On the way out there were lots of cars going by with road bikes inside and/or on bike racks. A few miles later I figured out where they were all headed. The Jefferson Cup Bike Race was going on! I didn’t encounter any of the racers on my way though, but saw a few warming up at the staging area.
After a little over 10 miles I finally reached Walnut Creek… (more…)
The third lab for the Optical/IR Instrumentation class was focused on cryogenic systems. We had to measure the length contraction of various metal objects after being immersed in liquid nitrogen (T=77Kelvin). Using the length contraction we calculated the coefficient of length contraction. We also modeled the cooling of UVa’s new spectrograph (TripleSpec) by fitting the measured cooling data. Finally, using a small dewar and vacuum system, we measured the temperature in a steel bar as a function of position along the bar and time, while one end of the bar was held at 77K via reservoir of liquid nitrogen. The website below is contains our results, as well as pictures from the lab.
Astr512, Spring 2008: Group Beaton/Fields/Privon/Whelan Lab 3
Here’s a photo writeup of a lab for our Optical/IR instrumentation class. We had to disassemble an old clock and put it back together, ensuring it worked. It was great fun, although challenging at times. There’s quite a lot of gears, and we had to contend with some exploding parts 
All told, it took us about 3.5 hours to take the clock apart, figure out how it worked, and put it back together again.
ASTR 512: Lab 2 – Dissecting a Clock
Just a few days ago, after years of hard work by folks at UVa, the TripleSpec near-infrared spectrograph saw first light at the Astrophysical Research Consortium’s 3.5m telescope at Apache Point Observatory. This medium resolution spectrograph obtains JHK spectra simultaneously. This is one of three copies being built (one copy is on the Palomar Observatory Hale Telescope and one will go on one of the Keck telescopes). After testing it will become a facility instrument.
I was fortunate enough to be able to see the instrument open as it was being tested. Quite a cool piece of machinery. I hope to receive a few observations of a couple Seyfert galaxies from the first light run. Once the instrument is available for general use, I’m looking forward to using it in some of my AGN research. It should be a great asset!
APO TripleSpec First Light
In addition to my own personal use, I’ve been wanting to allow family contributions and use of privon.com. I’m proud to announce that genealogy from the Chew Family (and associated families) will be provided online at the following link:
Chew Genealogy
Currently there’s a few pictures online from the Collins Family and Foster Family. I hope to add more in the future (as they’re sent to me), and perhaps a family tree if I can get my hands on one. If you have more material to ad, please contact me.
Here’s a cool video from some folks in Portland.. moving house using just bicycles. They even manage to get a sofa to the new house! Good stuff… Guess this only works for in-town moves though
Welcome To Nau – bike move
Edit (10 March 2008: 19:39:00): I got this link from Adventure Cycling’s Bike Bits email newsletter.. It’s great. Go sign up if you’re into cool bike stuff.
