I spent 3 days in Boston last week, visiting a collaborator at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics. We were mainly focused on reducing some EVLA data, and managed to get a lot done in the short period of time I was there. On my last full day, I took the camera along and took some pictures:
I spent the last week down in the New Mexico desert, attending the 12th Synthesis Imaging Workshop (can you spot me in the picture?). The aim of the workshop is to teach astronomers about radio telescopes, particularly interferometers. These instruments are very unique in their methods of attaining the highest angular resolution, despite the long wavelength of light involved. The workshop covered roughly a week and served as a “boot camp” for radio astronomy. The majority of the time was spent listening to lectures which described the theoretical and practical side of using radio telescopes to observe the Universe. However, two days were spent working with real data, and two days were spent “playing” (hiking and getting a tour of the Expanded Very Large Array).
I had been wanting to attend this workshop (which is held every 2 years) since 2005, when I began working on data from radio telescopes. So I was very excited to be there with the other 150 students.
Of course, I suspect recounting the excellent lectures (which can be viewed online or purchased) might not keep you reading, so instead I’ll put up some pictures from the extra-curricular activities from the week..
The first of which was a trip to Santa Fe and Taos. I had never been to either place and it was a nice change from Socorro. I won’t say much, just put some pictures up.
In addition to the two towns we also drove across the Rio Grande and walked around on a large bridge over the gorge. It was a pretty windy day, so our ankles were ex-foliated by the blowing sand 
On Sunday all the summer school attendees were treated to a tour of the EVLA. I have been to the VLA two times before, but I can’t turn down a chance to visit a telescope! The EVLA has actually changed somewhat substantially since the upgrades have started. Most of the 20-30 year old electronics have been removed and replaced with new digital equipment to upgrade the instrument by a factor of at least 10. This includes laying optical fiber to collect data from the individual dishes.
By far the coolest part about the EVLA visit was this:
Yes, it is a slightly grainy/blurry picture of the EVLA from a distance. What makes this so cool? When I took the picture, it was taking data for my project! After the tours, I found out that my name and my EVLA project ID were on the screens in the control room. Just as we arrived, it finished taking data on a merging luminous infrared galaxy. I haven’t had a chance to analyze the data, but rest assured I will put something up here once I have.
Another interesting part of the tour was the new Long Wavelength Array (LWA) station at the EVLA site. This is a low-frequency array and they have built the first demonstrator station (picture up and to the left). It’ll be interesting to track their progress over the next few years!
I managed to get a nice panorama of the EVLA as all the dished returned to their stowed position before resuming observations:
There are more pictures online:
Santa Fe and Taos on flickr
EVLA tour on flickr
On Monday I will be flying to New Mexico to attended the 12th Synthesis Imaging Workshop at NRAO in Socorro. It won’t be my first time in Socorro, but I always look forward to going back. This trip will be particularly enlightening as I will be listening to and learning from world experts in Radio Astronomy teach techniques.
I have some experience in radio astronomy from research I’ve already done, but I am expecting that basic knowledge to make this workshop even more beneficial. In addition to the knowledge, we will also be getting a tour of the new, Expanded Very Large Array. I have toured the VLA before, but seeing the upgraded instrument should be very exciting!
I suspect I will be fairly busy over the next week and a half with the workshop and meeting new people. At the minimum, I should be posting pictures to flickr over the course of the week (particularly from the group hike and the EVLA tour).
The past few weeks have been fairly busy for me. I am starting to experience the seemingly never-ending cycle of proposing for telescope time. It started with the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope where proposals were due 15 January. After finishing that, internal requests were due for UVa telescopes. Coming up next is the deadline for NRAO telescopes, such as the Expanded Very Large Array. Fortunately, I don’t have to write any of the proposals from scratch, so that makes things a bit easier.
All of the requests are for data will be used for my PhD thesis, which will be investigating the gas and dynamics of merging pairs of (formerly) spiral galaxies as they transform into elliptical galaxies.
Writing proposals is interesting.. You have to succinctly (usually in 2-3 pages) describe the scientific merit of your project, complete with background and a technical justification showing it is feasible with the telescope. Often, the Time Allocation Committee (TAC) is composed of both experts and non-experts in your sub-field. So, you need to write a proposal which is scientifically accurate and compelling, but write it in such a way that someone on the TAC who is not an expert can still understand the project. It is sometimes a tough balance, especially when given just a few pages..
So, with two proposals down and one to go, I’d better get back to writing!
The past few weeks have been quite busy. There has not been much time to do actual research, but I have spent lots of time thinking about science. An array of proposals have been due over the past few weeks, from large radio telescopes (Westerbork, VLA) to large optical telescopes (Gemini) to small telescopes (Bok 90″ on Kitt Peak). About an hour ago I submitted the last proposal for a month or two. I have asked for a decent chunk of time to obtain optical and radio data to support my PhD thesis. I will hear back on some of the allocation requests next week or the week after, but some will take until December. I am anxious to find out, but I have plenty to keep me busy over the next few months.
My main order of business starting next week is to write papers. I have two or three research projects which are close to completion and need to written up for publication. So I will be setting aside any new work for the time being to tie up loose ends on these projects. More on those as they progress along…
This afternoon I continued my work on a Seyfert galaxy. Last week, while waiting for proposal comments from collaborators, I measured strengths of emission lines at various places in the galaxy. Using ratios between different elements or different transitions of a specific element, we can learn something about the physical conditions (temperature, density) of the gas! Quite cool. So today I continued working on the raw data, making plots of some interesting ratios. That will give us an opportunity to see if we see any changes in the physical conditions with location in the galaxy. The small plotting portion is done now and will wrap up my week. Off to the weekend! More on that after it has happened
Powered by WordPress