DOCSLIB.ORG

AAO Observer Feb 2014

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
AAO Observer Feb 2014 OBSERVER THE AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY NEWSLETTER NUMBER 125 FEBRUARY 2014 HERMES Achieves First Light HERMES Commissioning | Gemini Astronomy Contest | Seventy-Five Years of Schmidtery DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Director’s message Warrick Couch One of the AAO’s key functions, as set out months of this period, I can at least claim spectrograph. So it is most gratifying to in the Australian Astronomical Observatory to have strong connections to its origins, now be at this point where this capability Act 2010, is “to develop, manufacture and in having a lot to do with the securing of is now in place on the AAT, ready for our provide instrumentation for use by the the NCRIS grant that funded a big chunk community to reap the scientific rewards. Australian optical astronomy community”. of HERMES, and then being party to the Of course major instruments do not get to A conspicuous feature of this issue of AAT Board’s decision to give this project a telescope without a long, complex, and the AAO Observer is that over the last the green light. The most prominent often challenging journey – and HERMES semester the AAO has delivered on this in memory I have of these early beginnings has been a ‘crash course’ introduction spades, with the successful commissioning was the overwhelming support received to this world for me as the new AAO of two new instruments on the AAT. from the Australian astronomy community Director! Readers of this issue will also for the investment of a significant fraction By far the most significant of these is appreciate this when they read Keith (~10%) of the NCRIS funds in a major new HERMES, the commissioning of which Shortridge’s article on page 8, which so instrument for the AAT, and the very clear represents the culmination of what has brilliantly captures the ups and downs, consensus that emerged that it should be a been a mammoth effort by the entire highs and lows, moments of despair as fibre-fed multi-object high esolution optical observatory over the last 6 years. Although well as euphoria of the last 7 months of I feel a complete ‘Johnny-come-lately’ HERMES’ journey. To have successfully in being AAO Director for just the last 6 dismantled HERMES at the AAO’s old Contents SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS OzDES and the Dark Energy Survey 4 HERMES Commissioning - as it happened 8 CYCLOPS2 Catches an Exoplanet in a Polar Orbit 10 KOALA: a new 1000 element integral field unit for the AAT 12 Resolving the role of environment in galaxy evolution with SPIRAL 14 OBSERVATORY NEWS A New Chapter for the Australian Gemini Astronomy Contest 18 StarFest in the Warrumbungles 19 AusGO CORNER 21 Seventy-Five Years of Schmidtery 24 LOCAL NEWS News from North Ryde 26 Letter from Coona 27 Credit: Isobelle Teljega (St Margaret's Anglican School), Travis Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage), and the Australian Gemini Office. The nearby spiral galaxy IC 5332 was captured in the winning image from the 2013 Gemini School Astronomy Contest! DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Epping site, shipped it to and reassembled use of a ‘double lens’ microlens array that discussions. From an AAO perspective, it at the AAT, overcome the serious issues realizes an almost 100% filling factor and we are well placed to provide a quantitative with the imaging performance of HERMES a much more efficient coupling between assessment of the impact the national four VPH gratings, achieved first light the focal plane and the fibre array. and international optical telescopes that and fully commissioned the instrument the AAO operates/supports (AAT, UKST, With both KOALA and HERMES now over three runs in close succession in Gemini, Magellan) have had over the commissioned, it is worth highlighting October-December, and demonstrated last decade, particularly as a function that the AAT is now a very versatile that HERMES performs close to spec, of instrumental capability. In looking to spectroscopic facility indeed in terms is an effort of heroic proportions, for the next decade, I think it important to of providing multi-object, single fibre which the HERMES team and all the consider the AAO’s place within Australian and IFU capabilities over a broad range AAO staff should be very proud. astronomy from two angles: Firstly, of spectral resolution. The robotically what combinations of optical telescope/ As we head into 2014, the stage is now positioned 400-fibre “two degree field” instrument capabilities, existing or new, set for the major flagship survey to be (2dF) system now feeds either the does the AAO need to provide to allow undertaken with HERMES – the GALactic AAOmega or HERMES spectrographs, the Australian astronomy community to Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) providing multi-object spectroscopy at achieve its scientific aspirations? Secondly, Survey – to commence, and for HERMES to low-to-moderate (R = 1300 – 10,000) what specific roles does the AAO need be made available as a facility instrument or high (R = 28,000 – 50,000) spectral to have as a national facility if it is to to the community starting in semester resolution, respectively. SAMI and provide the best possible support to its 2014B. Already, GALAH has made a KOALA then provide both multi- (x13) research community and that maximizes promising start through an initial pilot and single-object IFU capability over the its productivity in a decade where the survey. With its primary goal being to same low-to-moderate spectral resolution international astronomy landscape is reconstruct the formation history of the range, through feeding AAOmega. This sure to change significantly? Let the early Milky Way by measuring precise represents a powerful suite of capabilities decadal planning process commence! radial velocities and abundances for over that should keep the AAT scientifically a million stars, it has a strong synergy competitive well into the future, noting with Gaia space mission that will create that further enhancements are planned a precise 3D map of stars throughout soon (e.g. upgrade of the AAOmega CCDs the Milky Way as well as measure their in two months time) or are in the pipeline motions. In what has ended up as quite (e.g. expansion of SAMI to a 50-60x immaculate timing, Gaia was successfully multi-IFU system, known as “Hector”). launched on 19 December (2013) – just Finally, 2014 will be a very important year 4 days after HERMES commissioning for the Australian astronomy community as was completed – and so far is on track it undertakes its decadal planning process to enter full survey mode in May. for the 2016-2025 period. This process As if commissioning HERMES was not a (organized by the National Committee big enough task, the AAO’s new integral for Astronomy) will involve undertaking field unit KOALA was also successfully a stock take of Australian astronomy’s commissioned on the AAT the week prior capabilities, assessing its impact both to the first HERMES commissioning run. nationally and internationally, providing As described in Simon Ellis’ article on page a vision for the future, and determining 12, KOALA is a 1,000 element IFU device priorities and strategies for implementing that provides a bigger field of view and this vision. As such, Australia’s national better throughput than its predecessor, astronomy facilities (AAO and CASS) SPIRAL. Moreover, it further builds on are certain to figure prominently in these the AAO’s heritage of innovation in fibre optic-based instrumentation, with the SCIENCE HIGHLIGHTS OzDES and the Dark Energy Survey Kyler Kuehn1, Chris Lidman1, Filipe B. Abdalla2, Chris D’Andrea3, Manda Banerji2, Elizabeth Buckley-Geer4, Michael Childress5,14, Tamara Davis6, Stephen Fine7, Karl Glazebrook8, Stephanie Jouvel9, Alex Kim10, David Lagattuta8, Huan Lin4, Geraint Lewis7, Paul Martini11, Jeremy Mould8, Bob Nichol3, Ray Norris12, David Parkinson6, Eduardo Rozo13, Eli Rykoff13, Nick Seymour12, Rob Sharp5, Rollin Thomas10, Syed Uddin8,14, William Wester4, Fang Yuan5,14. Ordinary Matter, Dark the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS). of the observations. We have therefore Matter and Dark Energy Spectroscopically following all these SNe built a system that allows us to download The atoms that make up the things we Ia in real time is not practical. Instead, the latest target catalogues and create see every day - us, the air we breathe, the DES will forego the real-time follow-up the configuration files a few hours before planet we stand on, the sun that warms of the bulk of the SNe Ia and will use a each night starts. To simplify things as our skin, and the 6000 stars that we can strategy that has been tested in a pilot much as possible, we have developed the see when we look up at the night sky - survey that the OzDES consortium did web-based tool shown in Figure 1. Each play a relatively minor role in how the with the 2dF fibre positioner and the row in this figure represents one of the universe evolves. Dark matter is 10 times AAOmega spectrograph on the AAT. The DES SN fields. The toggles allow the user more significant than this ordinary matter. central plank of the strategy is to obtain to lock fibres on selected targets (used More significant still is dark energy. redshifts from the SN host galaxies, from only when a field is re-observed during which a large sample of photometrically- a run), to produce files that can be read What is dark energy? Is it the classified SNe Ia can be constructed with by commonly used display tools such “cosmological constant” long ago sufficient purity and completeness for the as Aladin, and to switch to the backup described by Albert Einstein, or does cosmological analysis. The results of the program if conditions are too poor for the it indicate that our theory of gravity is OzDES pilot survey are described in an main program.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Wigglez Dark Energy Survey: Probing the Epoch of Radiation Domination Using Large-Scale Structure
    MNRAS 429, 1902–1912 (2013) doi:10.1093/mnras/sts431 The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: probing the epoch of radiation domination using large-scale structure Gregory B. Poole,1,2‹ Chris Blake,1 David Parkinson,3 Sarah Brough,4 Matthew Colless,4 Carlos Contreras,1 Warrick Couch,1 Darren J. Croton,1 Scott Croom,5 Tamara Davis,3 Michael J. Drinkwater,3 Karl Forster,6 David Gilbank,7 Mike Gladders,8 Karl Glazebrook,1 Ben Jelliffe,5 Russell J. Jurek,9 I-hui Li,10 Barry Madore,11 D. Christopher Martin,6 Kevin Pimbblet,12 Michael Pracy,1,13 4,13 1,14 15 Rob Sharp, Emily Wisnioski, David Woods, Downloaded from Ted K. Wyder6 and H. K. C. Yee10 1Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia 2School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parksville, VIC 3010, Australia 3School of Mathematics and Physics, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia 4Australian Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 915, North Ryde, NSW 1670, Australia http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/ 5Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 6California Institute of Technology, MC 278-17, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 7South African Astronomical Observatory, PO Box 9, 7935 Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa 8Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA 9Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia 10Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
    [Show full text]
  • The Wigglez Dark Energy Survey
    The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey Chris Blake (Swinburne University) Sarah Brough, Warrick Couch, Karl Glazebrook, Greg Poole (Swinburne University); Tamara Davis, Michael Drinkwater, Russell Jurek, Kevin Pimbblet (Uni. of Queensland); Matthew Colless, Rob Sharp (Anglo-Australian Observatory); Scott Croom (University of Sydney); Michael Pracy (Australian National University); David Woods (University of New South Wales); Barry Madore (OCIW); Chris Martin, Ted Wyder (Caltech) Abstract: The accelerating expansion rate of the Universe, attributed to “dark energy”, has no accepted theoretical explanation. The origin of this phenomenon unambiguously implicates new physics via a novel form of matter exerting neg- ative pressure or an alteration to Einstein’s General Relativity. These profound consequences have inspired a new generation of cosmological surveys which will measure the influence of dark energy using various techniques. One of the forerun- ners is the WiggleZ Survey at the Anglo-Australian Telescope, a new large-scale high-redshift galaxy survey which is now 50% complete and scheduled to finish in 2010. The WiggleZ project is aiming to map the cosmic expansion history using delicate features in the galaxy clustering pattern imprinted 13.7 billion years ago. In this article we outline the survey design and context, and predict the likely science highlights. Figure 1: Caption: The distribution of galaxies currently observed in the three WiggleZ Survey fields located near the Northern Galactic Pole. The observer is situated at the origin of the co-ordinate system. The radial distance of each galaxy from the origin indicates the observed redshift, and the polar angle indicates the galaxy right ascension. The faint patterns of galaxy clustering are visible in each field.
    [Show full text]
  • The H-Index in Australian Astronomy
    Addenda: The h-index in Australian Astronomy Kevin A. PimbbletA,B A School of Physics, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia B Email: [email protected] Abstract: Pimbblet (2011) published an evaluation of the Hirsch h-index in the context of the Aus- tralian astronomical community. This addenda adds treatment of changes of surname to the compu- tation of the h-index and presents derivative data on the m-index. Keywords: Errata, Addenda 1 Change of Surname Table 1: Top 10 h-index for Australian Astron- Pimbblet (2011) published a variety of analyses on the omy, excluding overseas professionals with correc- h-index (e.g. Hirsch 2005) in the context of Australian tion applied for surname changes. Astronomy. Alongside that, a discussion of a number Rank Name h of caveats was also made. One further caveat merits =1 KenFREEMAN 77 explicit attention in the interpretation of the h-index: =1 JeremyMOULD 77 changes of surname. In the Pimbblet (2011) analysis, 3 Karl GLAZEBROOK 71 no attempt was made to track surname changes. This 4 Dick MANCHESTER 68 has the effect of depressing the h-index of individuals 5 MichaelDOPITA 64 who have changed their names over the years. Its effect can readily be seen in Table 1 where we re-compute the 6 Warrick COUCH 61 top ten h-index for Australian Astronomy and account 7 Joss BLAND-HAWTHORN 57 for changing surnames: Bland-Hawthorn’s previous h- 8 MatthewCOLLESS 56 index was suppressed by 4 points by not taking this in 9 Brian SCHMIDT 54 to account. We emphasize that the same dataset was 10 MikeBESSELL 53 used for this re-computation as the original paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence for a Non-Zero L and a Low Matter Density from a Combined Analysis of the 2Df Galaxy Redshift Survey and Cosmic Microwa
    Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 330, L29–L35 (2002) Evidence for a non-zero L and a low matter density from a combined analysis of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey and cosmic microwave background anisotropies Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/330/2/L29/1085554 by California Institute of Technology user on 20 May 2020 G. Efstathiou,1,2P Stephen Moody,1 John A. Peacock,3 Will J. Percival,3 Carlton Baugh,4 Joss Bland-Hawthorn,5 Terry Bridges,5 Russell Cannon,5 Shaun Cole,4 Matthew Colless,6 Chris Collins,7 Warrick Couch,8 Gavin Dalton,9 Roberto De Propris,8 Simon P. Driver,10 Richard S. Ellis,11 Carlos S. Frenk,4 Karl Glazebrook,12 Carole Jackson,6 Ofer Lahav,1 Ian Lewis,5 Stuart Lumsden,13 Steve Maddox,14 Peder Norberg,4 Bruce A. Peterson,6 Will Sutherland3 and Keith Taylor11 (The 2dFGRS Team) 1Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA 2Theoretical Astrophysics, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 3Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ 4Department of Physics, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE 5Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping, NSW 2121, Australia 6Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia 7Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Twelve Quays House, Birkenhead L14 1LD 8Department of Astrophysics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia 9Astrophysics, Nuclear and Astrophysics Laboratory, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH 10School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews, Fife KY6 9SS 11Department of Astronomy, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 12Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218-2686, USA 13Department of Physics, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT 14School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD Accepted 2001 November 26.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae
    CURRICULUM VITAE FULL NAME: George Petros EFSTATHIOU NATIONALITY: British DATE OF BIRTH: 2nd Sept 1955 QUALIFICATIONS Dates Academic Institution Degree 10/73 to 7/76 Keble College, Oxford. B.A. in Physics 10/76 to 9/79 Department of Physics, Ph.D. in Astronomy Durham University EMPLOYMENT Dates Academic Institution Position 10/79 to 9/80 Astronomy Department, Postdoctoral Research Assistant University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A. 10/80 to 9/84 Institute of Astronomy, Postdoctoral Research Assistant Cambridge. 10/84 to 9/87 Institute of Astronomy, Senior Assistant in Research Cambridge. 10/87 to 9/88 Institute of Astronomy, Assistant Director of Research Cambridge. 10/88 to 9/97 Department of Physics, Savilian Professor of Astronomy Oxford. 10/88 to 9/94 Department of Physics, Head of Astrophysics Oxford. 10/97 to present Institute of Astronomy, Professor of Astrophysics (1909) Cambridge. 10/04 to 9/08 Institute of Astronomy, Director Cambridge. 10/08 to present Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Director Cambridge. PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES Fellow of the Royal Society since 1994 Fellow of the Instite of Physics since 1995 Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society 1983-2010 Member of the International Astronomical Union since 1986 Associate of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research since 1986 1 AWARDS/Fellowships/Major Lectures 1973 Exhibition Keble College Oxford. 1975 Johnson Memorial Prize University of Oxford. 1977 McGraw-Hill Research Prize University of Durham. 1980 Junior Research Fellowship King’s College, Cambridge. 1984 Senior Research Fellowship King’s College, Cambridge. 1990 Maxwell Medal & Prize Institute of Physics. 1990 Vainu Bappu Prize Astronomical Society of India.
    [Show full text]
  • Nobel Lecture: Measuring the Acceleration of the Cosmic Expansion Using Supernovae*
    REVIEWS OF MODERN PHYSICS, VOLUME 84, JULY–SEPTEMBER 2012 Nobel Lecture: Measuring the acceleration of the cosmic expansion using supernovae* Saul Perlmutter University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA (published 13 August 2012) DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.84.1127 The ‘‘discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the were studying supernovae. They saw that in principle, you Universe’’ does not flow trippingly off the tongue—which is could use a very bright exploding star, a supernova, to fitting, since the work that led to it was comparably long and perhaps answer this question. I will show you why that would tortuous. In this Lecture, I would like to give you a feel for be possible. some of the science issues we were facing over the ten years You could take the brightness of a supernova as an indi- leading up to the discovery. I will primarily use the graphics cator of how far away it is: the fainter it is, the farther away it from the original overhead projector transparencies we were is from us—and hence its light has taken more time to reach using in those years. Although they are not as beautiful as our us. So with the fainter supernovae, you are looking farther and modern-day graphics, I hope they will help give some of the farther back in time. You can also use the colors of the texture of what was going on during that period. spectral features of a supernova: a supernova would look The question that motivated all this work is something you blue if it were seen nearby, but when you see it very, very can imagine that the very first humans might have asked when far away it looks red.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report Astronomy Australia Limited
    2012 / 13 Annual Report Astronomy Australia Limited Vision Astronomers in Australia will have access to the best astronomical research infrastructure. Mission AAL will achieve its vision by: 1. Engaging with Australian astronomers to advance the national research infrastructure priorities of the Australian astronomy decadal plan. 2. Advising the Australian Government on future investments in national astronomical research infrastructure. 3. Managing investments in national astronomical research infrastructure as required. Principles 1. Access to major astronomical research infrastructure should be available to any Australian-based astronomer purely on scientific merit. 2. The concept of national astronomical research infrastructure includes Australian participation in international facilities. 3. The AAO and CSIRO are empowered by the Australian Government to provide a component of the national astronomical research infrastructure and there is no need for AAL to directly manage investments to upgrade or operate the AAT and ATNF. About AAL Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL) is a not-for-profit company whose members are all the Australian universities and research organisations with a significant astronomical research capability. AAL works with Australia’s National Observa- tories, astronomers and the Australian Government to advance the infrastructure goals in the 2006-2015 Decadal Plan for Australian Astronomy. Since its incorporation in 2007, AAL has coordinated the Australian astronomy response to, and managed the funding for, a number of national schemes and projects, including the Australian Government’s investments in astronomy infra- structure through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), the Education Investment Fund (EIF) and the Collaborative Research Infrastructure Scheme (CRIS). Background image 5x2-minute snapshot of the Galactic centre taken using 121 tiles of the Murchison Widefield Array at 150MHz, mosaicked together in the im- age domain.
    [Show full text]
  • HERMES Shipped
    OBSERVERTHE AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY NEWSLETTER NUMBER 124 AUGUST 2013 HERMES shipped New AAO Director | Wambelong Fire: Before and After | Growth of BCGs DIRECTOR’S MESSAGE Director’s message Warrick Couch Having been associated with the AAO where there are many areas the AAO Director’s cottage adjacent to the AAT. for more than 30 years as both one of its and ANU can both benefit by working The Warrumbungles seem to have taken employees and a user of its telescopes, closely together (e.g. on instrumentation on a whole new character and appearance, I feel very honoured to now being projects and SSO operations). with rocky outcrops and other geological making this appearance on page 3 of features that had never been seen before As readers will be well aware from the the newsletter, with the responsibility now rendered visible, and the ghostly last issue of the AAO Observer, the of providing the Director’s message. appearance of hectare upon hectare of time between this most recent change Moreover, I realize I have a very hard act gum trees stripped bare of their leaves, but of directors was a very eventful and to follow, given the outstanding calibre their pale bark left intact. That none of the challenging period for the AAO. Just days of my immediate predecessor, Matthew telescopes on Siding Spring Mountain were after I had accepted the job, I wondered Colless, as well as his predecessors (Brian seriously damaged would seem a miracle, if there would be any telescopes left for Boyle, Russell Cannon, Don Morton, and and the fact that the AAT was back in me to direct, with a massive bushfire Joe Wampler).
    [Show full text]
  • Luminosity Dependence of Galaxy Clustering
    Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 328, 64–70 (2001) The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: luminosity dependence of galaxy clustering 1P 1 2 2 3 Peder Norberg, Carlton M. Baugh, Ed Hawkins, Steve Maddox, John A. Peacock, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/328/1/64/989360 by California Institute of Technology user on 20 May 2020 Shaun Cole,1 Carlos S. Frenk,1 Joss Bland-Hawthorn,4 Terry Bridges,4 Russell Cannon,4 Matthew Colless,5 Chris Collins,6 Warrick Couch,7 Gavin Dalton,8 Roberto De Propris,7 Simon P. Driver,9 George Efstathiou,10 Richard S. Ellis,11 Karl Glazebrook,12 Carole Jackson,5 Ofer Lahav,10 Ian Lewis,4 Stuart Lumsden,13 Darren Madgwick,10 Bruce A. Peterson,5 Will Sutherland3 and Keith Taylor4,11 1Department of Physics, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE 2School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD 3Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ 4Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping, NSW 2121, Australia 5Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia 6Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, Twelve Quays House, Birkenhead L14 1LD 7Department of Astrophysics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia 8Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH 9School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, North Haugh, St. Andrews, Fife KY6 9SS 10Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA 11Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA 12Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218-2686, USA 13Department of Physics, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds LS2 9JT Accepted 2001 July 16.
    [Show full text]
  • Warrumbungle National Park
    Dark Sky Park Submission Warrumbungle National Park 2 Table of Contents WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK 2 LETTER OF NOMINATION 5 WARRUMBUNGLE DARK SKY PARK COMMITTEE: 6 THE DARK SKY PROPOSAL IS SUBMITTED ON BEHALF OF: 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 6 ELIGIBILITY OVERVIEW 7 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK HISTORY AND INFORMATION 9 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK OVERVIEW 9 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK MANAGEMENT PLAN 11 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK HERITAGE-LIST VALUES 11 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK SPECIFIC VALUES 12 HISTORY OF SIDING SPRING OBSERVATORY 13 PRINCIPAL ACTIVE TELESCOPES 14 DECOMMISSIONED HERITAGE TELESCOPES 14 PARK LOCATION AND MAP 15 WARRUMBUNGLE DARK SKY PARK PUBLIC EDUCATION 16 EVENT EXAMPLES -WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK 17 CROOKED MOUNTAIN CONCERT, 2015 18 EXAMPLES OF OUTREACH MATERIALS 19 FLYER 19 POSTER BOARDS 20 DVD 23 DARK SKY PARK WEBSITE 23 TWITTER 23 MEDIA COVERAGE 2015 23 FUTURE OUTREACH OPPORTUNITIES 24 DARK SKY COMMUNICATION AWARD 24 – SPONSORED BY THE AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY. 24 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK DARK SKY QUALITY 25 SATELLITE NIGHT IMAGES 25 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK NIGHT SKY 27 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK SKY QUALITY MEASUREMENTS 27 3 SKY IMAGERY 28 UNLIT PARK BUILDINGS 29 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK LIGHTSCAPE MANAGEMENT PLAN 30 WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK 30 THE AIMS OF THIS LIGHTING MANAGEMENT PLAN 30 NAME 30 WHERE THIS PLAN APPLIES 31 WHY A DARK SKY PARK? 31 GOOD LIGHTING 31 TYPES OF LIGHTING IN THE WARRUMBUNGLE NATIONAL PARK 31 MANAGEMENT OF LIGHTS 32 RESTRICTED AND PROHIBITED LIGHTING 32 SHORT TERM EXEMPTIONS FOR
    [Show full text]
  • Nobel Minds Expand Our Universe
    Special Contribution Nobel Minds Expand Our Universe Robert Quimby IPMU Postdoctoral Fellow There had been considerable interesting research being conducted, star near its critical mass limit as speculation that he would eventually and there were great advisers to point a necessary ingredient, then the receive the world’s most famous astray students in the right direction conformity in Type Ia supernovae can award, yet I was still pleasantly (George Smoot went on to win the simply be explained by the similar surprised on the day Saul Perlmutter 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics). quantities and distributions of fuel in won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics Saul’s team was using distant the explosions. Turning these stellar along with Brian Schmidt and Type Ia supernovae to derive the bombs into rulers to measure great Adam Riess for the discovery of matter density of the universe and distances is then straightforward. the accelerating expansion of the the deceleration parameter, which As with any source of light, the universe. I served on Saul’s team as was originally intended to express brightness of a supernova appears an undergraduate (and later "post- how quickly the expansion of the to decrease with the distance to the baccalaureate") from 1997 and made universe was slowing down due to observer squared. Since we know a small contribution to the prize- the con­ning pull of gravity. As the the luminosity of Type Ia, we also winning paper. Saul generously Nobel Prize was awarded for the know how distant they are to good invited the whole team to join in the acceleration in the expansion of the accuracy (about 5% with careful festivities, so last December I boarded universe, we now know that the corrections), and since they are quite a plane bound for Stockholm.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Report 2018 Arc Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3D Acknowledgement
    ANNUAL REPORT 2018 ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR ALL SKY ASTROPHYSICS IN 3D ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ASTRO 3D acknowledges the support of the Australian Research Council and all of the collaborating and partner institutions in the Centre. OWNERSHIP OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS Unless otherwise noted, copyright (and any other intellectual property rights, if any) in this publication is owned by ASTRO 3D through the relevant collaborating institution. EDITORIAL BOARD Bi-Qing For (UWA) - ASKAP Lilian Garratt-Smithson (UWA) - Genesis Kathyrn Grasha (ANU) - Galaxy Evolution Lisa Kewley (Director) Ingrid McCarthy (Central) Ben McKinley (Curtin) - MWA Thomas Nordlander (ANU) - First Stars Sarah Sweet (Swinburne) - SAMI Adam Thomas (ANU) - Galaxy Evolution OUR COLLABORATING UNIVERSITIES OUR PARTNER INSTITUTIONS CONTENTS ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS 4 DIRECTOR’S WELCOME AND REPORT 6 ABOUT THE CENTRE 10 OUR VISION AND MISSION 10 OUR STRATEGIC GOALS 12 STRUCTURE 14 GOVERNANCE 15 EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 15 ADVISORY BOARDS 15 INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD 15 NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD 17 SCIENCE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE 18 EQUITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION COMMITTEE 19 POSTDOCTORAL COMMITTEE 21 STUDENT COMMITTEE 21 OUR PEOPLE 22 CHIEF INVESTIGATORS 22 PARTNER INVESTIGATORS 27 ASSOCIATE INVESTIGATORS 27 RESEARCH FELLOWS 29 RESEARCH STAFF 30 AFFILIATES 30 PHD STUDENTS 31 OTHER STUDENTS 33 PROFESSIONAL STAFF 34 RESEARCH 37 RESEARCH THREADS 37 GENESIS SIMULATIONS 37 DATA INTENSIVE ASTRONOMY (DIA) 39 RESEARCH PROJECTS AND SURVEYS 41 THE MWA EOR 41 THE FIRST STARS 42
    [Show full text]