The Romance of Observing
We are collecting photons!!
The weather at Siding Springs Observatory, home of the Anglo-Australian Telescope 3.9m, has dramatically improved over the last 2 or so hours and we are now observing our objects. Or so we think.....
However, clear or cloudy, solid or milky, there is a definite romance to sitting up late at night observing unimagibably far away collections of billions upon billions of stars. Why, here we're not only in the isolation of the New South Wales savanah but also the all but complete desolation that is this tiny rock island in deep space.
It is just coming upto 4am in the morning for me.
The weather at Siding Springs Observatory, home of the Anglo-Australian Telescope 3.9m, has dramatically improved over the last 2 or so hours and we are now observing our objects. Or so we think.....
However, clear or cloudy, solid or milky, there is a definite romance to sitting up late at night observing unimagibably far away collections of billions upon billions of stars. Why, here we're not only in the isolation of the New South Wales savanah but also the all but complete desolation that is this tiny rock island in deep space.
It is just coming upto 4am in the morning for me.
posted by NPR at 4:37 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Nic,
Sorry I failed to notice your comments until just now. I'm a bit of a blog virgin.
Anyway - I'm mucho jealous of you; it sounds idyllic over there. I'd love to be at the telescope, seeing what the Universe has been playing at over the last few billion years. Alas I have to sit at a computer and make it up.
Looking forwards to a whisky bonanza on your return!
Any results yet?
The fog's improved in HK now - mayb e you won't need to go all the way to Australia to take observations in the future, when you could do it here with a pair of binoculars :|
Hope the flight went well!
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