GLAST launched successfully. June 12, 2008
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The GLAST spacecraft launched successfully from Florida at 12.05 pm EDT today. It is now in orbit about 560 km above the Earth with solar arrays deployed. A launch image is shown below (credit: NASA TV).
GLAST ready for launch, June 11. June 11, 2008
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The GLAST satellite is ready for launch. It is scheduled for launch on a Delta II Heavy rocket with a launch window from 11:45 a.m. - 1:40 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, June 11.
Astronomy Ambassador Summer School at ARCC, UTB June 10, 2008
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I’m here in the Sci-fi looking Arecibo Remote Command Center (ARCC) within the Center for Gravitational Wave Astrophysics (CGWA) at University of Texas Brownsville. I’m surrounded by a keen if slightly nervous group of high school students from Texas and Puerto Rico who are about to embark on a three-week long Astronomy Ambassadors summer school. This is one of three summer schools, the others in computer science and mathematics, that the university is running over the next few weeks.
Students meet at 10 am each day for a subject-specific session that is then followed by a scientist from the university or elsewhere giving a lecture to the combined groups. Today’s talk will be about gamma-ray bursts. The afternoon session is a two-hour lab with a range of activities. I’m only here for the first four days as I fly home to Australia on Friday. Nonetheless I’m looking forward to working with the students on some introductory activities and giving Wednesday’s talk to the whole group about telescopes of the world.
Unfortunately I miss out on the camping trip next week to western Texas. There the students will construct their own Dobsonian telescope that they get to keep then use it under the dark skies of the region to observe the stars. They will also visit McDonald Observatory, home of the 9.2 m Hobby-Eberley Telescope and other telescopes.
When I arrived at ARCC late Friday afternoon they were busy mounting large, flat-screen LCD displays from the ceiling and walls. On Saturday afternoon there was a welcome and briefing for the five new undergraduates who have just been accepted as ARCC Scholars. They have a four-year program at UTB studying Physics and related subjects whilst working closely with scientists at the CGWA and using the ARCC to observe pulsars using the famous 300 m Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.
On Sunday we welcomed the students and parents involved in the Astronomy Ambassadro program. They were able t observe an actual observing session at Arecibo conducted by UTB students using the ARCC as you can see below.
ASP Symposium: Weekend Workshops - Day One June 2, 2008
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I arrived in St Louis on Friday night after a long flight from Australia sans luggage. Oh well! Fortunately Jim Small from the St Louis Astronomical Society helped me out by taking we down to a couple of Jazz/Blues bars near the BUSCH Stadium where the local Cardinals were playing Pittsburgh (baseball). Had a nice Cajun meal, a few restorative beers and managed to buy a t-shirt from BBs so I was respectable for the following day’s workshop. Just got back to the hotel before a massive thunderstorm struck. Lots of others didn’t quite make it so there were many drenched people arriving in the hotel lobby. Thunder and sleep don’t mix hen combined with jet lag so only got a few hours sleep.
Saturday saw day one of the weekend workshops organised by the ASP. Three were on offer and I had selected Amateur Astronomers as Champions of IYA 2009. This turned out to be a sound choice as the workshop had a range of presenters and topics and gave overview of some IYA activities an how amateurs can get involved. I’ll try and summarise the sessions below.
- The workshop was introduced and hosted by Marni Berendsen and Vivian White from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
- First topic was by Sun-Earth Day Opportunities by Lou Mayo and Isabel Hawkins.
- Marin and Vivian then gave an overview of of the IYA Program for Amateur Astronomers.
- Stephen Pompea and Rob Spark from NOAO presented Teaching with the Galileoscope in the IYA. This was a really useful session and I was impressed how the team working on the Galileoscope have reined the concept and have what appears to be a workable, flexible and engaging solution. he plan now is for a scope with about 45x magnification, 1 degree field of view and a large eye relief. This will give a telescope that is suitable for urban students to view the Moon and the planets. The telescope can also double a an optical lab and is reusable so different groups can construct their own telescope. The aim is a scope for about $10 per unit.
- Following lunch Vivian showed us how to make a comet from dry ice and some other ingredients. This is always a fun activity. An engaging addition was getting each group to design and decorate their own Comet Cook aprons.
- Brian Day introduced us to LCROSS, (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) a lunar mission that will send a Centaur rocket stage crashing into a polar crater on the Moon. The collision and resulting cloud of ejecta will be monitored by the LCROSS probe following 4 minutes behind. They hope to find evidence of water in the cloud. One point that grabbed my attention was the that high school students in the GAVRT scheme using the 32m dish at Goldstone will be monitoring the LCROSS trajectory from the Earth to the Moon. Depending on the launch date (currently projected as late December 08) this could take a few months. Brian and I chatted about the possibility of some Australian students involved in PULSE@Parkes also getting involved and observing the probe. Marni then consolidated this by presenting some cratering activities and simulations including the bowl of flour dusted with cocoa powder and some useful hints as how to maximise the impact (pardon the pun) of these.
- Dark Skies from the Ground up: Amateur Astronomers as Ambassadors for GLOBE at Night covered by Connie Walker from NOAO and Dark Skies Discovery Sites by Terry Mann from the Astronomical League. GLOBE at Night is a wonderful project set up by Connie and her team. It runs during March each year and involves anyone going outside at night, finding Orion the trying to compare what they see with one of six diagrams available from the website. There is an excellent range of online and support materials. What I particularly like is that it is designed for use anywhere and caters for southern hemisphere observers
After a long but stimulating day I returned to the hotel to find that my luggage had finally arrived intact! I didn’t have much time to relax though as I was soon heading off with a group about 30 km out of St Louis for a great party at Pamela Gay of StarStryder and Astronomy Cast fame’s home. This was a wonderful way to end the day and meet lots of people. I finally met Phil Plait (of Bad Astronomy) and Chris Lintott having been a regular reader of all their blogs. Phil in his former employment had worked on the GLAST Outreach materials whilst Chris is one of the team heading up Galaxy Zoo. I’ll be attending their workshop on new media in astronomy on day two. Another heavy thunderstorm enlivened the evening but was mixed with some fine food, beer and conversation.
Off to the USA - ASP/AAS Joint Meeting May 30, 2008
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I’m about to fly across across the Pacific to St Louis, Missouri for a joint meeting between the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the American Astronomical Society. The theme for the ASP meeting is Preparing for the International Year of Astronomy, a Hands-On Symposium. This starts on Saturday 31 may with two days of IYA-related workshops then three days for the actual ASP meeting. The AAS conference runs from Monday to Thursday. I’ll be attending the weekend workshops and the four days of meeitngs. I have a poster paper about ATNF Education Initiatives plus a 10-minute oral presentation on Tuesday about PULSE@Parkes.
I’m looking forward to this trip! I’ve been to few ASP meetings, the last in Tucson three years ago, so it will be good to catch up with some American colleagues and meet many new ones. It will be my first AAS meeting though so this should be interesting. ATNF has a display in the exhibitor’s hall so we should get lots of visitors.
Hopefully between long days and conference dinners and evening events I’ll get a chance to post some useful and interesting educational and astronomy items.
Sydney Observatory celebrates 150 years. May 29, 2008
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Sydney Observatory’s time ball was first dropped at 12 noon on 5 June 1858. To celebrate this the Observatory has a series of events over the next few weeks. A new flagstaff will be officially opened on the 7th. The Observatory plays a key role in communicating astronomy and science to the public and has a stunning location at atop The Rocks, overlooking the harbour and the bridge.
- Monday 2 June at 6:30 pm - A talk on the history of Sydney Observatory by Nick Lomb - “Rise, fall and rise again: the tale of Sydney Observatory”
- Thursday 5 June - media preview of the new Observing the weather exhibition, the reinstalled giant flagmast and the renovated Fort Phillip Signal Station
- Saturday 7 June, Sunday 8 June & Monday 9 June Open weekend with the anniversary speeches, the anniversary dropping of the time ball and the ceremonial raising of the flags on the Saturday morning
- Friday 13 June 6:30 pm - A talk by Fred Watson - “Why is Uranus upside down?” - followed by telescope viewing
- Saturday 14 June - seminar on the history of Australian meteorology - Target Theatre, Powerhouse Museum
- Sunday 15 June - seminar on the history of Australian astronomy - Target Theatre, Powerhouse Museum
- Friday 4 July and Saturday 5 July from 6 pm - the annual “Festival of the stars
The seminars on the 14th and 15th of June include a great range of speakers and cover a diverse range of topics including Aboriginal astronomy by Ray Norris from the ATNF and the history of The Dish at Parkes.
Thanks to Nick Lomb from Sydney Observatory for these details.
GLAST Due to Launch May 26, 2008
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This has been a big day for space missions. Earlier today Phoenix landed successfully on the arctic plain in the northern polar region of Mars. It is alrady sending back some wonderful images from the Martian surface.
Now news comes through confirming a rumour I heard earlier today. The GLAST (Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope) is due to launch from 3 June. This is great news! I’m involved in a project, PULSE@Parkes, which allows Australian high school students to control the 64m Parkes radio telescope remotely over the internet to observe pulsars. The students analyse their observations to determine properties of the pulsars and compare their results with those obtained by other schools. The observations that students obtain also suppprt other programs undertaken by ATNF astronomers including the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array that is seeking to make the first direct detection of gravitational waves. The other key program are observations in support of the GLAST mission. One area of interest to the GLAST team is the study of pulsars that are glitching, showing sudden increase in their rotation rates. Radio observations of pulsars will alert the GLAST team as to potential targets for observation with GLAST. Perhaps some Australian students will make an observation that triggers observations by this new space telescope!
There is a useful and diverse range of educational resources developed by the GLAST Outreach team based at Sonoma State University. Topics include black holes, supernovae and active galactic nuclei.
NASA TV Now Live with Phoenix Landing May 26, 2008
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NASA TV has just gone live with the Phoenix landing. You can also add your own comments on the mission blog site.
Phoenix Mission to the Arctic Plain of Mars May 23, 2008
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NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander is due to touchdown on the Martian surface in just over two days and 18 hours. There will be a wealth of coverage for this event including live coverage on NASA TV. For those of you in Canberra the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla will be holding a free public event starting at 8.30 am on Monday 26 May to coincide with the the landing. They expect to receive confirmation of the landing at 9.53 am AEST and will be screening live coverage from NASA TV, providing talks about the mission and showing images as they become available.
If things go smoothly with the entry into the Martian atmosphere and the descent then hopefully the lander will look like this moments before touchdown.
Visit the Phoenix website to view an animation of this process.
WorldWide Telescope released May 13, 2008
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Microsoft Research have now released WorldWide Telescope.
I haven’t had a chance to use it yet as the system requirements are beyond my four-year old desktop PC at work and I don’t have Windows running on my Mac either. A pity as it certainly looks engaging and powerful from the visualisations provided on the website.
It appears that the developers have approached it very much as an educational tool. I’m impressed with the simple (Flash) homepage with the three sections: Telling stories, The visual experience, and Context. The download seems pretty hefty and 10 GB of hard disk space is recommended. For Windows PCs they suggest: 3D accelerated card with 128 megabytes (MB) RAM; discrete graphics card with dedicated 256-MB VRAM recommended for higher performance.
Hopefully I’ll get a chance to try it in the next few days. No doubt there will be lots of discussion on various sites. I’m interested in seeing how practicable it is is the average school.
Now, all I need is more time to play with this and Google Sky to get a better feel for them.
