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Meet the astronomers. See where they work. Know what they know.


The Project:

The Cosmic Diary is not just about astronomy. It's more about what it is like to be an astronomer.

The Cosmic Diary aims to put a human face on astronomy: professional scientists will blog in text and images about their lives, families, friends, hobbies and interests, as well as their work, their latest research findings and the challenges that face them. The bloggers represent a vibrant cross-section of female and male working astronomers from around the world, coming from five different continents. Outside the observatories, labs and offices they are musicians, mothers, photographers, athletes, amateur astronomers. At work, they are managers, observers, graduate students, grant proposers, instrument builders and data analysts.

Throughout this project, all the bloggers will be asked to explain one particular aspect of their work to the public. In a true exercise of science communication, these scientists will use easy-to-understand language to translate the nuts and bolts of their scientific research into a popular science article. This will be their challenge.

Task Group:

Mariana Barrosa (Portugal, ESO ePOD)
Nuno Marques (Portugal, Web Developer)
Lee Pullen (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
André Roquette (Portugal, ESO ePOD)

Jack Oughton (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
Alice Enevoldsen (USA, Pacific Science Center)
Alberto Krone Martins (Brazil, Uni. S. Paulo / Uni. Bordeaux)
Kevin Govender (South Africa, S. A. A. O.)
Avivah Yamani (Indonesia, Rigel Kentaurus)
Henri Boffin (Belgium, ESO ePOD)

Archive for September, 2009

New Zealand joins Australia to bid for the SKA!

An amazing announcement was made on 21 August in Sydney. The New Zealand government on that day signed a memorandum of understanding with Australia agreeing to join Australia’s bid to host the Square Kilometre Array or SKA. The SKA will be the world’s largest radio telescope and a mega-science project costing some 1.5 billion euros over the next decade or so. Nineteen countries are at present members of the SKA consortium, and the expectation (or hope) is that all these will contribute to the huge costs involved. This will easily be the biggest science project ever undertaken in either country, and one of the largest in the world in the early 21st century. It is a project of extraordinary technological challenges, but also fantastic scientific goals of exploring the earliest moments soon after the creation of the universe using an instrument some 100 times more sensitive than any yet built.

September 24th, 2009 | posted by john in Astronomical instrumentation, New Zealand, SKA

The Townsend Observatory and the Cooke refractor of 1864

The University of Canterbury (my home institution) is fortunate to have a venerable old telescope of outstanding pedigree. It is the Townsend telescope, a 6-inch equatorially mounted refractor made by Thomas Cooke (1807-1868) of York, England in 1864. The telescope is in excellent working order and in essentially its original condition, with a mechanical weight drive and twin-ball governor for the polar axis. It is used now for public outreach. It is one of my favourite old telescopes, and any astronomical aficionado who likes antique telescopes should visit the Townsend in Christchurch.

The Townsend 6-inch telescope, 1864.

September 17th, 2009 | posted by john in Astronomical instrumentation, History of astronomy, New Zealand

An astronomical adventure in Paraguay

I suppose Paraguay is one of those forgotten out-of-the way countries in South America, that most people don’t even dream of going there. That was much the way I perceived Paraguay, as a land-locked nation completely off the tourist track and lagging behind in economic development.

At the end of August I had the chance to visit Paraguay for a week and lecture at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción (UNA), thanks to the support of the IAU Commission 46. I went there with Hugo Levato from the CASLEO institute in San Juan, Argentina. It was interesting to see how preconceptions and reality differed so markedly!

September 10th, 2009 | posted by john in Astronomy in developing countries, IAU, JBH

Astronomy in Uruguay

After participating in the IAU General Assembly in Rio, I flew south to Montevideo, Uruguay to find out more about amateur and professional astronomy in that country. My hosts were Eduardo Álvarez and his wife Ines. Eduardo is a leading amateur astronomer in Salto, a town in the north-west of Uruguay, and both he and Ines had visited New Zealand in 2007. I had the pleasure of staying with them, both in their Montevideo apartment and in their large family home in Salto, which is also the site of the Observatorio Astronómico Los Algarrobos (or OLASU) (see www.olasu.com.uy).

El Observatorio Astronómico Los Algarrobos (or OLASU) in Salto, Uruguay, is sited on the roof of the home of Eduardo Alvarez.

September 3rd, 2009 | posted by john in Astronomy in developing countries, JBH