Gerard's Travel and Astronomy Notes

New Digs!

2012-01-05T09:15:00.000-08:00

Lowell Observatory's Hall 42", located at
Anderson Mesa near Flagstaff, AZ

So, it has been a while since I've posted to my blog, and there have been some big changes. In the intervening time, I've taken a new job back in the US at Lowell Observatory. This has meant a relocation back to the states, and my family and I are now new residents of the lovely town of Flagstaff, Arizona.

An aerial view of the NOI & Anderson Mesa

In the end, there's little difference between this and rocket science:
it's all about the plumbing

Lowell is an interesting place for me, because it means that I have the opportunity to work on the Navy Optical Interferometer (NOI), a large telescope array located on Anderson Mesa near Flagstaff. The NOI currently operates baselines in the visible up to 80m in length, which means resolving stars down to ~1mas in size is fairly straightforward; an ongoing upgrade means its longest 437m baselines will be open in ~12-24 months, with a corresponding increase in angular resolution.

Countdown to Kepler & Terra Nova

2009-02-02T23:01:00.001-08:00

The Kepler field of view,
straddling the Summer
Triangle (Altair, Vega, Deneb). On March 6th, at 3:48 UTC, a Delta II launch vehicle will rise off the ground at Cape Canaveral's pad 17B, riding a fountain of fire being belched from its RS-27A main engine and 6 GEM-40 solids strapped to its sides like oversized fireworks. Three additional GEM-40 solid rockets get an air start about 2 minutes into flight, and burns of the Delta K second stage and Star 48B third stage will loft the Kepler spacecraft into an orbit around the sun, drifting away from the Earth at slow rate over the following years. After the roaring earthquake-in-a-thunderstorm ride to that orbit, Kepler will settle into the deep interplanetary quiet - an ever waking, watchful sentinel, on the lookout.

During its long stare, Kepler will seek - and find - planets like Earth: the size of Earth, orbiting stars similar to our Sun, separated from their host stars at distances similar to the Earth-Sun system. Places where liquid water are thought to be likely, where life can flourish. Terra Nova.

Kepler will do so by looking with its large, unblinking eye, at a huge, heavenly (literally) host of stars - initially, about 200 thousand - taking a digital picture and measuring the brightness of each of those stars once every few minutes. The exact same field of stars, for 4 long years (and even longer if a mission extension comes to pass). If one of those stars happens to be Sun-like, if it happens to have an Earth-like planet, if that planet happens to be in a Earth-like orbit (about 93 million miles from its host star), if that orbit happens to pass between us and that star, and if Kepler is looking during the transit event, then a detection might occur. Stare long enough, the planet's orbit will swing it around for a second transit, establishing the duration of the orbit - and then later, a third: confirmation. A lot of if's - and the mission design attempt to solve that: look at a lot of stars, with a regular rate, for a very long time - four years or more, in fact. Each one of the "if's" I mentioned has a small likelihood of success associated with it, but if you beat enough targets, for long enough, against those small probabilities, one can still come up with non-zero discovery rates.

Assuming the rocket doesn't blow up on launch (yet another 'if' - but the Delta II's are about as resoundingly reliable as they come), and if the satellite functions properly, what is the expected haul of planets? This is difficult to say, actually - astronomers don't have much information on how common Earth-like planets are - this is a major motivation for the mission. But, if current models are true (they are, every blue moon), the expectation is that roughly 50 Earth-like objects will be found, in addition to a large number of bigger objects (such as Neptune-sized objects).

Currently there's a similar smaller scale mission, CoRoT, flown by the French space agency CNES, which in turn was predated by an even smaller scale mission, MOST, flown by the Canadian Space Agency. CoRoT just celebrated its 2nd year anniversary, and MOST has been orbiting since mid-2003. Both CoRoT and MOST can detect large-ish planets (giant gas bags like Neptune and Jupiter) - particularly if the host star is smaller than our sun - but Kepler's scope (roughly a factor of 10 larger than CoRoT) allowed it to be designed specficially for the goal of finding distinctly Earth-like planets. It's an exciting prospect - one more step on the Copernican Revolution started over 400 years ago, one that will not only expand the frontiers of our scientific knowledge, but one that will distinctly impact humanity's sense of its place in the universe.

* :)

Observing Challenges

2009-02-01T19:43:00.000-08:00

Four little telescopes, all in a row

So I am, once again, at the Paranal Observatory, observing with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI). VLTI uses multiple telescopes to synthesize a single, larger telescope - one of a size that is far beyond what is practical to build by itself. For example, we are able to configure our telescopes to act like a telescope more than 100-m in diameter - something that would be nice to have but is not economically feasible.

We are in the process of commissioning a new instrument for VLTI called PRIMA - I'll save you the pain of what the acronym means and cut to the practical impact of it: PRIMA allows us to observe two objects simultaneously. It effectively lets the VLTI behave like an interferometer, times two. This setup lets us do a couple of tricks - first, it will allow us to look at things fainter than we normally can, by using one of the two channels to lock up the optics on a bright star, while the second channel stares at something dim. Second, PRIMA will let us measure the angle between those two objects to an unprecedented level of accuracy, something south of 100 microarcseconds.

Twilight - getting ready to observe Hmmm... a microarcsecond: this is a pretty daunting science-type term. How small is such a measure? Well, let's put it this way: if you & your friend are standing on opposite sides of a soccer pitch (or football field) - about 100 meters - it's the angle subtended by the apparent distance that one of his hairs grows in a second, as viewed by you.

Pretty cool, huh? But here's the catch: VLTI is a rather complicated beast, and PRIMA makes it all that much worse. So, we shipped PRIMA out to the site last August, and we've been working to get it functioning ever since. It'd been expected that there would be an extended period of commissioning to shake out all the bugs (think of it as a test flight regime for a new aircraft), but some times the observing runs associated with commissioning can be a challenge when new & exciting optomechanical system do new & exciting - and unexpected - things. So at times we're left scratching our heads. ("Huh? The star separator did what?")

The moon and Venus in conjunction This particular observing run has been like that. We fix one thing and something else breaks or misbehaves. It's currently day 4 of 10 - and things overall are only getting better - but it's turning into a long haul. We'll be ready for the bus in a week! However, as we like to say (and first attributed to Albert Einstein), if we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be research...

[nb. tip 'o the hat to The Blog Doctor for tips on image posting in Blogger.]

* :)

Separated at Birth?

2009-01-28T18:18:00.000-08:00

Working in the field of astronomy, there are many and wondrous things that one often encounters during the course of one's travels. In many cases, the sights are sufficiently novel as to leave one scrambling to place them in context in an inadequately rich cultural backdrop. This is, of course, ever-so-true for the images that astronomers pluck out of the sky each and every day.

Telescopes are often located at the very extremes of the earth (and beyond). These locations are generally selected for environments that are as benign as possible - but not from the point of view of their human operators: these considerations are purely driven by the needs of the machines. Locales that are very dry, cold, and high atop mountains figure prominently on the wish list for sites for observatories. These locations often have staggering vistas associated with them - stark landscapes that seem to have been ripped off the surface of the moon, rather than having anything to do with Mother Earth.

And finally, the telescopes themselves often defy convenient categorization, being objects of purpose-built wonderment that have lines that curve and swoop in unfamiliar ways. These machines are often reflections of their times (for example, the 100" Hooker telescope looks a lot like other large things of its era - battleships!) - the fingerprints of the technologies out of which they were born are all over them, even if they themselves look nothing like the more conventional applications of that technology. Think of what would have happened if Andy Warhol had been locked in a Dunkin' Donuts kitchen and told produce some art. It'd be something wacky & cool & unexpected, but you know it'd have a certain familiarity because it'd be deep fried and covered in powdered sugar, too.

Having recently come back to ESO's Paranal Observatory to use the VLTI, I sometimes reflect upon these things as I wander around outside on the observing deck. On the deck are the 4 outsized domes for the UTs (the cleverly named 'Unit Telescopes'), the VLTI building, and the 4 AT telescopes (the also cleverly named 'Auxiliary Telescopes'). The ATs are specifically designed to be used with the VLTI, and as such, rank high on my list of personally important astronomical glass. The ATs are interesting little telescopes¹, designed to be compact and can even be driven around like futuristic street cars. The flat white finish could easily have been designed by Apple, like some outsized iPod (is it too late to trademark the term iTelescope?), but recently I have discovered an even closer cultural link for them.

It's something that nagged at me for some time - that "I've seen this before" feeling that I couldn't put my finger on. And then it hit me: the ATs could easily be mistaken for Marvin, the oppressively depressed robot from Douglas Adam's ever-so-delightful Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (at least, the movie version). The resemblance is striking - so much so, it gives me pause: did any of the film's producers visit Paranal before filming? Where did that Marvin design come from, anyway? And using Alan Rickman's voice in the movie for Marvin - it's just like when Rickman was in Die Hard, and they blow up the place, which of course is what happened to Paranal in Quantum of Solace. Coincidence? I think not.

¹"Little" being a relative term - at 1.8m (71") in size, they're small only next to the 8.2m UTs.

* :)

Crisis at ESO!

2009-01-23T00:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, talk about an alarmist headline. But it's true! Why? There is a machine at ESO, a magic machine, one that single-handedly fuels the engine of astronomical discovery. I have often remarked that it is the single most important machine at the facility. What is it? Tucked away in the heart of the ESO cafeteria, sitting atop a shiny stainless steel countertop that has been devoted to it alone, like an altar, is the ESO espresso machine.

Its sheer size and glittering controls are sure to elicit a mouth-dropping expression of wonderment from the newcomer. ESO veterans know to make a beeline every morn immediately upon arrival at work for this cathedral of caffination and pay homage to its wonderous powers of brewing and steaming. Wizened oldtimers of the institute remark that its prodigious mind-enhancing output - estimated to be well in excess of 30,000 cups of black, liquid lightning a year - has single-handedly led to more discoveries than any comparable device in the modern world.

But alas, this morning, a mournful sign hung like a rude stoplight on the front of the machine. "Out of order," was its tale of woe. Progress today at ESO? Perhaps not. Perhaps the ephemeral mysteries of the universe will hide yet one more day behind the mists of uncertainty, with no minds coffee-sharpened like razors to cut away at the fog that hides discovery. But, "a technician has been called", the sign goes on to read - so there is hope for yet more insight will eventually come in seeking the secrets of the universe...

* :)

Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe ... with MS Project?

2009-01-22T06:55:00.001-08:00

Yes kids, here I am today, digging away in search of the next Rosetta Stone that will explain the latest round of interstellar mysteries, slogging it out with ... Microsoft Project?

Welcome to the era of Big Science. Actually, that era has been going on for quite some time - probably the best early example of the über-project is the Manhattan Project. For me, the engineering projects I've worked on have been small-ish teams - typically a dozen or so people - but even that requires careful choreography at times. That's where necessary evils such as MS Project rear their ugly heads.

For example, next week, I'll be going to Chile to ESO's Paranal observatory to work on the PRIMA Instrument. During that time, there will be about a dozen people, all tinkering around with different aspects of the same instrument. What's to keep one person's change not appearing as an effect that someone else thought they did? Choreography. More precisely, "careful management of project personnel and instrumention resources" - basically, making sure we're not stepping on each other's toes. This is MS Project comes in: I tell it who's going to be there, and what bits of laboratory are available, and then list all of the tasks that we'd like to do over the 10 days that we'll be there. Each task has people and bits of lab tied to it, and a preferred order in which it gets done relative to the other tasks. MS Project, being told that, makes sure the order is followed and that nobody is being bookkept to do 20 hours of work in a single day. (We like to keep it to more like, oh, 16 hours a day.) At least in theory this is what Project does - in practice I've found it to be an arbitrary and capricious beast, no amenable to taming.

Think of it as being the sole teacher in a schoolyard during recess when one shiny new slide has been installed - on a merry-go-round - next to a lake. You have a rusty old whistle that only works half the time, and you're trying to make sure that everyone get a turn, and that no kids bump their heads, shoot off the spinning slide into each other, or get wet. Ok, stupid analogy. But can you think of a better one?

* :)

Working on the Very Large Telescope Interferometer

2009-01-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Gerard van Belle - I'm an astronomer working on ESO's Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), a facility that uses all of the telescopes at ESO's Paranal Observatory together as one single, massive telescope. I describe this frequently as "a lot of smoke and mirrors - but mostly mirrors".

The VLTI has a laboratory underground, surrounded above ground by the telescopes of Paranal. Each telescope can collect light and send it to the lab, where - after some careful control - the various light beams are recombined to synthesize that single, large telescope.

Installation of new instruments for the VLTI requires a lot of time downstairs in the lab. For my job at ESO, I'm helping to develop the PRIMA (Phase-Referenced Imaging & Microarcsecond Astrometry) instrument for the VLTI.

"Interferometry" is, even to veteran astronomers, a strange, fascinating - and sometimes scary - concept. I'll try to gently take my readers on a tour through this peculiar landscape, highlighting the important ideas and interesting results.

* :)

Blogging along....

2009-01-19T04:53:00.000-08:00

So I've been recruited to post to the Cosmic Diary blog, and will be doing so, mirroring my posts here on my own private blog as well. I'm a little less than thrilled with how the CD blog is working out - posts tend to disappear into a black hole after a short life on the front page as one of the 5 most recent posts. So posting my content here as well as there will give it the most mileage.

The Paranal Residencia - Destination for James Bond in Quantum of Solace

2008-10-24T22:59:00.001-07:00

Recently the base camp of the ESO observatory in Cerro Paranal was used as a set for the upcoming James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. As such I thought it might be interesting for people to have an in-depth look at the location.

Wikipedia has details on the movie , the observatory, and the Residencia itself; the IMDB entry is also available. Also of interest is the Google Maps view; you can follow the road on the map to the north and west to the telescopes themselves.

THIS JUST IN: ESO has issued a press release about the upcoming movie release.

A view of the Residencia from the summit of Cerro Paranal.

Close-up of the view of the Residencia from the summit.

From the outside, there is a ramp that lead down into the Residencia. Since the facility is built into a hillside, and you're entering it from the uphill side, there's the impression that there's nothing there except for this strange dome.

Inside the Residencia, the lobby has a large, domed atrium with a swimming pool at its center. The lobby is one level up from the pool and overlooks the greenery of the atrium and the pool.

Since the whole Paranal area is one that is highly sensitive to light pollution due to the proximity of the telescopes, the domed ceiling, seen above, is configured to let in light during the day, but at night...

... the ceiling curtain spreads open and seals the light inside the translucent dome.

Inside the lobby atrium. The Residencia is truly an oasis in the middle of a very bleak desert and represents a welcome retreat from the surrounding desolation.

The secondary lobby down by the rooms.

Another view of the lobby. To the right is the dining room, open 24/7 for hungry astronomers.

The swimming pool at the base of the lobby recently was resurfaced - here you can see the work in progress.

A view of the summit from the Residencia.

One of the original proposal views of the Residencia project.

The bridge that crossed the interior atrium was apparently deleted from the final design: now the walkway from the entrance follows along the wall to the lobby. Pity.

Cross-sectional views of the proposal showing the multiple floors of the Residencia.

A movie that strolls from the outside into the Residencia.

Sauntering from one's room into the Residencia lobby and onto the dining room.

On the wall in the lobby - proof that James Bond was here!

The PRIMA Big Bang

2008-08-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

Had a pleasantly boring flight from Santiago to Antofagasto, with the exception of a amazingly picturesque departure out of the clouds when leaving Santiago - we climbed ever so gradually out of the mist, skimming along the cloud tops at breakneck speed. The video above captures it nicely.

Atop the mountain, I found one of the Auxiliary Telescopes at the far south station, looking like it was ready to go further than its rails allowed.
Also atop the mountain was the current schedule, which has had tasks crossed off as they proceed. So far, so good - things are on schedule.
One of the talents you must have as a black-belt interferometrist is to be able to pluck light out of the air!
What's funny is that, if I were a movie director with a very limited budget, filming some B-grade sci-fi flick, I'd probably come up with some prop that looks just like the optics above - I'd claim it was the starship drive or something like that.

Much of the work to be done on the optics is not accessible from the sides, because of the overwhelming clutter in the lab. Hence, the platform above the table is necessary for tinkering with the glass. Clearly I'm thrilled with another trip up top.

You see, once you're up top, to do the necessary work, a certain amount of gymnastics is necessary.
Here's another view of the work.

And here is the actual heart of the system - one of the two beam combiners that takes light from the two telescopes and puts it back together.

Boston

2008-06-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

Recently I had the pleasure of being in Boston for the "Transiting Planets" IAU Symposium. This was a surpassingly interesting scientific forum, but also a good opportunity to catch up with a few of my friends.

David with one of his favorite color movies.

David and Kaspar aboard the USS Constitution.

David risked Teresa's wrath and went to the Union Oyster House without her.

Our globe-trotting pal Jaymie Matthews arrived just in time (as usual!)

David, Kaspar and myself get caught up on some science projects.

I hate to say it, but Boston is full of dead people.

"Just like Columbus..."

Jeroen Bouwman and Giovanna Tinetti put in some heroic measures for their latest paper (submitted after a few all-nighters during the conference).

The conference banquet was at the Barking Crab.

Stephan Kane and I enjoyed our lobster.

Dawn, David and I made a complete mess with the grub.

Fun at the Barking Crab.

One of the conference organizers, Dimitar Sasselov, enjoyed his lobster too.

Vienna

2008-04-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

I was kindly invited to the University of Vienna to visit Josef Hron and his group, to give a colloquium on observations of supergiant stars that I've collected over the years with the Palomar Testbed Interferometer. My talk went well, and I was able to build on some very interesting professional contacts with the Vienna group.

The branches hanging outside of the tavern indicates that the wine is in season.

At the Vienna Observatory.

I had a quick visit - only a couple of days. However, the second morning found me with a couple of hours free, so I journeyed into town to visit the museum of that most famous and most favorite of Viennese sons - no, not Mozart. And not Ah-nold, either. I mean that towering giant of 20th century psychology: Sigmund Freud.

Should I have brought my mother?

The museum was the apartment he lived in, conducting most of his professional life in Vienna (didn't know that) before being exiled to London in 1938 (didn't know that) and passing away in 1939 (didn't know that). Many other things I didn't know prior to my visit: he was a contemporary of Einstein and had the occasion to meet him (remarking in a later letter, "I knew as much physics as he knew psychology, so we had a very pleasant conversation."), avidly followed archeology and collected Egyptian artifacts, had children and grandchildren, some of whom went into psychoanalysis themselves, and was rarely seen (or even photographed) without a cigar. Died of cancer, unfortunately. All in all, the museum was very interesting and taught me a great deal about the life & times of Dr. Freud. My only criticism was that it was a little thin on taking about his work - I still have no idea what his major accomplishments were, professionally, aside from the background noise of random culturual references that have seeped into my subconscious. (Freud would have a field day with that comment, I'm sure.)

Can you believe this? In the museum gift shop, a Freud snow globe - complete with couch!

Found on the train. Even the Euro2008 cup is Freudian apparently. Must have something to do with the balls.

How does one top a visit to something like the Freud museum? By visiting the private, invitation-only collection of the Wien Sternwarte. (Ok, if you ask nicely, they'll pretty much let anyone in, but this sounds better.) They have an astonishing collection of astronomical instruments dating back one, two, even three to four hundred years - but even more astonishing is their collection of antique manuscripts. Original, first editions of manuscripts from Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo - even artifacts that /predate/ those individuals can be found in their fireproof safes. To see these books in person, to even hold them, was coming to touch directly the astronomer's equivalent of the Rosetta Stone.

A first edition of Copernicus's De Revolutionieus - the book that started the Scientific Revolution, despite being "the book nobody read" (a myth debunked by Owen Gingerich).

Title page for De Revolutionieus. The inscription in Greek warns, effectively, "Those who do not know math should not read further." The handwritten note below the title remarks that the copy was given to the university as, basically, tuition for a student. Discoloration of the lower half of the pages was due to a spilled oil lamp.

The heliocentric system shown in its full glory. On the right hand page is seen margin notes, seen frequently in manuscripts from that time.

A textbook by Puerbach that predates the Copernican manuscript by decades, to the mid-15th century, which instructs the reader on the geocentric system. Copernicus apparently had Puerbach, or at least this textbook, for instruction as a student of astronomy early on.

All in all, a tremendously successful visit to Vienna. Had a lovely time, met wonderful people, enjoyed delightful local cuisine, discovered interesting things about the cultural background of the world I live in, and had compelling, personal interactions with the scientific tapestry that defines my career. Couldn't wish for more in a visit!

Only in Vienna could one find a Falco tribute band!

Arlington, VA

2008-04-11T07:44:00.001-07:00

On March 26th I traveled back to the US to sit on an unnamed federal government review panel (confidentiality rules prohibit me identifying it - it's like secret spy stuff!) It was quite an interesting experience returning to the United States for the very first time since our Big Move to Munich.

Our trusty steed, ready to depart Munich.

Almost done with the ~8 hour flight!

Some of my airplane reading. Anyone see anything wrong with this pronouncement of "unacceptable behavior"? (Hint: try replacing 'atheism' with, say, 'Buddahism', or 'women's rights'.)

It's been over 6 months, and it was interesting to see how my perceptions had shifted ever so slightly. I must admit to a pulse of warm pride entering the passport queue under the "Welcome to the United States" sign. This was quickly doused by the 20 minute wait, but such is life.

Mmmmm.... really good beer. Don't get me started on how I can't find a really good beer in Germany.

During my visit I was able to visit my old pals, Steve and Carrie Haase. This was the first time I saw their son Christopher, who is about 6 months old. Christopher is a wonderful kid - clear proof that genetics works (and that he is the fortunate recipient of Carrie's).

"Just call me babe magnet."

Yes, those are sweet potatoes in the ice tray. Special mother trick passed down through the Garner line.

One of the ulterior motives in making the trip was to indulge in some much-desired shopping for those things we can't seem to find in Germany. Some of you may be saying, "suck it up, find different things in Germany to like" - and you're altogether correct to do so - but it's hard to resist the opportunity to bring back a load of some good home cookin' to help ease our transition into Bavarian living.

For some reason, I can't find a good bagel in Germany.

So, I had a protracted and intimate visit of both a local Safeway and local Target store, and also took the opportunity to beat the bushes for uniquely American comfort food: Arby's. (McDonald's, Starbucks, and even Burger King don't qualify, having invaded the Older Continent some time ago. Plus, they're by and large just plain icky.)

Shopping!

Suitcase #1: Goldfish, Peanut Butter Crunch, cookie mix. Doritos were included just to fill out the bag.

Suitcase #2: Peanut butter, laundry.

Alas, my time in the US was far too short, and my experience with United for the return was *far* too nasty. Since I'm now a resident of Germany, and primarily flying Lufthansa, I'm switching from being a loyal member of United's frequent flier club to being one of Lufthansa's. But, since it's one big happy friggin' Star Alliance family, it's no big deal, right?

My evil United 777.

Uh, that'd be a big fat no, sportsfans. I checked in, waving around the magic Gold Premiere Executive United card (gives average Magic User Astronomers a +8 on their Charisma, and a +12 on their Save Versus Economy Class roll) and I was told I couldn't get into the much envied Economy Plus seating class (you know, the one designed like you actually /have/ legs and a lower torso in general) since I wasn't Premiere Executive or even (gasp!) a lowly Premiere member. I continued to swing the card around like a scythe, hoping it could cut through the check-in agent's stony faced recitation of the positively bizzare rule, and had to resort of shameless, effusive charm instead. Thus, I ended up with a seat in Economy Plus, having the $80 dollar fee promoting me from plain vanilla Economy waived, but trapped in a dreaded middle seat - no window, no aisle available, she said. Check at the gate.

Waiting to board, thinking very nasty thoughts about a very nasty gate agent.

The gate proved to be a problem, being staffed by what appeared to be a demon from the 5th or 6th level of hell, cleverly disguised as a pitchfork-voiced middle aged woman from the local area. She informed me that yes, they had an aisle or even a window seat available, but she'd have to charge me that $80. To move me - from Economy Plus to Economy Plus. She also took it upon herself to strenously reiterate the aforementioned Bizzare Rule - that I wasn't Premiere Executive even though I had my Magic Clubmember Card proof to the contrary.

Anyway, to make a long story long, upon takeoff (seated, sandwiched between a family & a businessman in a middle seat), I noticed there were two seats all by themselves, available right next to us in Economy Plus. That prompted me to violate one of the sixteen hundred invoilate FAA Rules of Flight and I moved my behind into one of those seats before the seatbelt light went out. A good outcome, but one that made me curse the Demon Gate Agent all the more.

So, here is my Message to United: remember, remember, remember that I have a choice with whom I fly. In fact, having moved to Germany and making the switch to a new carrier, I am sitting on the crux of a choice to stick with Star Alliance or not. If you, United, feel for some reason that your membership in Star Alliance is worth something - and want us to feel the same way - then accord the members of your partner airlines the considerations they've earned by seeing altogether way too much of the inside of a flying round sardine can. More importantly, don't take it upon to disenfranchise your current flying club members (my card does say "Expires in Feb 2009") because we've decided to start dating your sibling instead of you. It's all too tempting to look much more closely at SkyTeam or OneWorld at this particular juncture.

Blue Dots Team in Paris

2008-04-09T12:57:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasant occasion to travel to Paris for a two-day meeting at Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, for the "Blue Dots Team", an effort to build community support for space mission aimed at directly detecting terrestrial planets orbiting nearby stars.

My former boss & mentor, Chas Beichman, discussing the SIM space mission.

Also present was Giovanna Tinetti, exoplant atmospheres expert extraordinare. Notice the contrast between fashion sense (left) and lack thereof (right).

Such an auspicious kickoff deserved a toast!

An appropriately named cafe for our BDT dinner.

French cafe culture does not seem to have suffered from the smoking ban - indeed, as long as there's French wine, how could it?

Holy Moving Telescopes, Batman

2008-01-18T10:46:00.000-08:00

On Monday we moved one of the VLTI auxiliary telescopes, number 4 ("AT#4"), from the observing platform atop Cerro Paranal down to the base camp, where a large assembly hall is located. The hall is useful for implementing modifications to the telescopes in an enclosed environment.

The ATs are designed to be self-mobile atop the platform, but need a special truck to get down to the base camp. As such, we had to drive AT#4 from its current location to a spot where we could lift it onto a truck and take it off the summit.

Needless to say, it is an impressive thing to see a 30-ton telescope lumbering down the rails. There are spots on the platforms where the rails make a 90 degree turn, which is no problem - the wheel trucks on the telescope base can be rotated to switch onto the intersecting rails.

We did the switch once to go from the "G" set of telescope stations, and once again the "J" set of stations were reached.

At the "J" line of telescopes stations, AT#4 was then driven to a spot where it could be lifted up and a truck trailer backed beneath it.

How do you lift a 30-ton telescope? Very carefully!

Once the telescope was on the truck trailer, it was driven down to the base camp.

Arriving outside the assembly hall, the telescope was lowered (once again - very carefully!) onto a set of rails identical to the ones at the summit, and then driven into the hall under its own steam once again.

All in all, the operation took about 8 hours, and went very smoothly. The team handling the activity were all very professional - industrious, careful, with a great deal of attention to detail.
I have to say, the whole day was extremely impressive to me - after working a number of years on designs for the Keck Interferometer that involved moving apertures, and battling deeply entrenched attitudes about optical telescopes not being able to be moved, it was very gratifying to me personally to see exactly that sort of thing in action. True, the transport to the base camp was extremely manpower intensive, but the station-to-station relocation was rather perfunctory.

Nice hard hat, eh?

Into the Interferometry Lab

2008-01-14T14:22:00.000-08:00

On my second day up at the summit, we had the opportunity to go into the interferometry lab. It's a veritable playground of optomechanics, as if someone had hopped up a class of 9-year-olds on birthday cake and let them loose in a Newport or New Focus warehouse.

The control room building, viewed just below the summit.

There are many different parts to the lab, so I'll try to walk you through them as I did. The lab itself is more or less in the center of the summit observing platform, with a small building atop it. You enter the lab by going in this building and then down some stairs - the subterranean location helps out with temperature stability.

The laser metrology table.

First off, there is an outer set of rooms for electronics and optics that don't need to be in the lab where the starlight is - anything that can be isolated from that is one less source of heat and or background light. For example, there is an area for laser metrology. The metrology is used in the lab, but is generated outside the lab and then shunted into the lab via tiny fibers of light. Laser metrology is a device that allows you to measure distances to very precise levels - in this case, around 10 nanometers (about 1/2000 the thickness of a human hair). This is necessary to monitor misalignments in the system.

Cryogenic controllers for the VLTI.

Also in the outer lab are the controllers for the cryogenic detectors. The computer chips that the starlight falls onto and thereby detect the light do so by measuring electronics jogged loose by that light. However, heat energy will also jog loose electronics, so the detector chips need to be cooled, typically to liquid nitrogen temperatures (77 Kelvin, about -320.44°F).

Two VLTI delay lines.

From the outer lab, we went through the inner lab and then into the delay line tunnel. To get an interferometer to work, you need the light from each telescope to arrive at the detector at exactly the same time. For light, distance equals time - the further it has to go, the longer it takes to get there - and since no other such 'battery' exists to store light to make it wait for delivery, you build 'delay lines'. These are effectively optical trombones that slide in & out to a particular location, which means the light on that line will arrive at the back end of the system on time.

Such delay lines need to work to a precision ~10 nanometers, so more metrology is used here.

Part of the VLTI switchyard.

The VLTI is configurable in a variety of ways, as far as which telescopes feed the system on the front end, and which cameras look at the light on the back end, so an optical switchyard helps route the light from the delay lines to the cameras.

The interferometry laboratory.

The interferometer lab is where the light really gets played with: here the starlight beams from multiple telescopes can be joined together, or "interfered" (hence the name), thereby synthesizing a larger telescope. This is what all the fuss is about: the effective spatial resolution (the amount of detail you can see on the sky) is far greater than one gets with a conventional telescope.

The FINTO fringe tracker.

Now, accomplishing this doesn't come for free, so some tools need to be brought to bear on the starlight. Basically, your enemy (well, one of them, besides yourself) is the atmosphere. It conspires to slosh the starlight around such that you cannot properly interfere the light. One of the ways it does that is by changing the delay that each telescope sees, so that the fringes - the product of the interference - move around. One can compensate for that by finding the fringe, and then locking onto it with a tracker before it moves away. Once done, you can follow the fringe around as the atmosphere whacks it back & forth.

Feed optics for the IRIS tip-tilt tracker.

However, in addition to an error in delay, the atmosphere also trys to move the light around on the sky - essentially, the familiar twinkling in the stars that we see with our own eyes at night. So, a tip-tilt tracker is also needed to follow the light around.

Part - about 1/3 - of the AMBER science camera.

If one has been successful with all of that, and you get a stabilized fringe out the back end, you can pipe the starlight into a science camera, which dices up the light in a more expansive way to tease out some of the details of the star you're looking at.

The VLTI at sunset, with 3 ATs ready to feed AMBER.

Next up: How do you move a 30-ton telescope? Very carefully!

Up to the Summit

2008-01-12T09:28:00.001-08:00

The 4 ATs at sunset.

The whole purpose of the trip, of course, is to be on site up at the summit. After getting settled at the residence, I went up the hill to poke around. I arrived at the summit right around sunset, when everyone was getting ready to get started observing for the night. A quick stop in the control building, and I was then up the stairs to the observing platform.

4 UTs and 4 ATs. 2 ATs are open to the sky, for feeding the
MIDI instrument. Note person in the middle of the photo for scale.

The platform was created by shaving about 100 feet off of the top of the mountain, thereby creating a large flat spot upon which the facility could be built. When I say "shaving", what I really mean of course is "using large amounts of high explosive". This is readily apparent from the view from above courtesy Google Maps.

AT#4, with UT#1 and #2 behind.

The summit is dominated by the four large "unit telescopes", or UTs, with four smaller "auxiliary telescopes", or ATs, sited between them. (Yes, this naming convention is both breathtakingly unimaginative, and confusing to boot.)

The UTs are 8-m class telescopes, with the ATs clocking in at 1.8-m each. The ATs are interesting in that they can be moved during the day between various stations, which is useful since they are exclusively for use by the interferometer. The UTs can also be used with the interferometer, although are so utilized less frequently, given the expense of the telescope time, and their utility as single-aperture instruments. (The ATs remind me of Marvin in the movie version of Hichhiker's Guide, particularly with their clamshell domes closed.)

Stephanie tells me that I "look in my element" in pictures from the summit. :)

One of the other spots at the summit worth noting is the control room. The control room is actually one single, large control room for the whole facility: all the UTs are controlled from there, as is the interferometer. Pictured above is the station for the interferometer; the UTs have essentially idential stations peppered throughout the room. (This is a whole heck of a lot of LCD screens.)

The other spot of interest is the interferometer laboratory, which we will look at in the next post.

Continuing on to Paranal

2008-01-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

Morning came all too early - a 5am pickup from the ESO Guesthouse. However, it was, as with my arrival, all very well run: a taxi showed up right on cue, took us to the airport, and after the usual circus of check-in and security endemic to all the world's major airport nowdays, we were off in a LAN Chile airlines A320.

The flight up was uneventful; I had a window seat on the right side of the airplane and should have been able to see the summit of Cerro Paranal before we arrived in Antofagasto, but the slant angle of the early morning sunlight prevented any such sightseeing.

Another gentleman with an ESO logo sign greeted us upon our arrival (I was traveling with another astronomer who had stayed at the guest house, David King, a seasoned Paranal veteran who was acting as my de facto observatory spirit guide by then) and we boarded an ESO bus.

We drove through Antofagasto, had a quick stop at the ESO office there to pick up some others bound for the summit, and we were then off to the mountain. Paranal is about 120 km south of the city, on roads that were quite unfinished at times, so it took more than two hours to make the drive. Fortunately the bus is quite comfortable - the seats are very plush, and the windows are large but well curtained against the harsh sun, so it was easy to sightsee, read, or just nap.

The area surrounding Antofagasto is, well, almost utterly barren. This region was chosen for the observatory given its almost total lack of precipitation, and the landscape wears that fact like a badge everywhere you look. "What's over here? Oh, dirt. And this direction? Oh, more dirt," one might find oneself thinking.

After that long drive, we arrived at the base camp, some 2km short of the summit, and checked in with security there, receiving visitor's badges - credit card looking things with a magnetic strip & bar code, good for door access and meals. The base camp includes lots of logistics sorts of facilities for support of the operation, plus the residence, where the staff stay during their time at Paranal. Off in the distance looms the silvery domes of the VLT summit.

The residence is quite interesting - the whole area is a barren wasteland, and the residence itself gives away no other impression from the outside, but inside, it is a small oasis of greenery. There are dorm-like rooms, a pool, a cafeteria, and nice garden areas throughout. It was a good place to stop for a while, kick up your heels, and have a nice cup of coffee.

Check out this cool video of entering the ESO residence.

Now, one has to step back and really be awestruck by how impressive this operation is - the observatory has its own powerplant, some of the most advanced technology telescopes in the world, its own fire brigade, even a 100 room hotel complete with solarium and pool, all at the very end of the Earth. Indeed, if the Earth were flat they'd have figured out a way to hang it on scaffolding over the edge to get a better view of the stars beneath.

Next post: going to the summit!

Chilean Trip #1 - Travel to Santiago

2008-01-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

Hi all-

I haven't been posting regularly like Stephanie but I wanted to share a few of my experiences and observations on my trip(s) down to Chile. Technically this current trip is not my first - I came down here in 1999 for the Opening Symposium of the VLT - but its my first as instrument scientist at ESO.

I departed the Munich airport around 7 in the evening on a Swiss flight, and switched planes in Zurich, boarding an Airbus 340-313. These are nice, spiffy new airplanes, but ...

... within 10 minutes of takeoff I had crashed the seatback in-flight entertainment system. Luckily it had a timeout reboot and came back alive after being hung a few minutes. (Thereby enabling me to watch 'Rush Hour 3', another fine contribution to world cinema from Hollywood.)

The flight had a brief stopover in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and then continued on to Santiago, flying over the Andes mountains (seen above). It's pretty impressive when the captain announces the beginning of the descent for landing and you're still clearly over some very tall - and close - mountain peaks.

One neat feature of the seat-back system is that it can show some outside view cameras - including one that looks forward for a "pilot's eye view". They actually switched this off for the approach & landing in Sao Paulo, but left it on for Santiago.

Our trusty steed on the ground in Santiago.

Upon leaving the plane, the first thing Americans have to do is cough up $100 for entry into the country. It's rooted in the Diplomatic School of Thought titled "Screw us and we'll screw you" - apparently this fee is charged purely because the US charges Chileans to enter the US, and to drive the point home, it's called a "Reciprocity Fee". Mind you, Euros were not accepted, but thankfully Mastercard was, since I've retired my greenbacks some time ago.

Once done, there's the standard song & dance of passport control, baggage claim, and then customs.

ESO has a pretty slick operation: you exit customs, and there's a kind gentleman waiting for you with a big blue ESO logo sign in his hand, and he grabs your bags and whisks you off to a taxi, where he equally expeditiously whisks you off to the ESO Guesthouse.

The guesthouse is a calm oasis of greenery and pleasantry in what appeared to me to be at least one branch of Embassy Row for Santiago. The staff checked me in, urged a hot lunch on me, and helped me settle quickly.

One of my gross oversights (of many) in preparing for the trip was forgetting to pack any shorts, which were keenly given the 90 degree weather in Santiago. It is, after all, summer in the southern hemisphere (as any astronomer should know). However, the guesthouse staff gave me surefooted directions to the nearest mall, which gave me an opportunity to stroll the streets of Santiago. I found it to be, in places, very similar to our former home in southern California, with a few notable exceptions (eg. some of the houses, particularly those associated with a consulate, had much more of a fortress look with nasty sharp fencing, etc.)

There was also some impressive scenery specific to the city, such as this barracks(?) with a lumberingly large flag undulating like a sail in the wind.

The mall resembled quite familiar territory, with a heavy American influence clearly felt, like the mailed iron fist of a medieval knight attempting needlepoint - a task that is simply incapable of subtlety. Familiar brands abounded: McDonalds, Calvin Klein, Gotcha, even Dunkin Donuts(!) In such a blizzard of commercialism, I could not but succeed in my quest to purchase shorts, and now have two pair to my name.

I returned to the guest house to observe that institution's time-honored tradition of Pisco Sours at 6:45pm, followed by a delightful dinner (poached salmon) and delightful conversation on the veranda afterwards. A quick night of sleep left me refreshed and ready to continue onto Antofagasta and Paranal the next day.