YAY! Hubble to be fixed!

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dr. Albert Holm (Space Telescope Science Institute)
Date: October 31, 2006 10:08:46 AM CST

To: AAVSO Discussion group

Subject: [AAVSO-DIS] Hubble Space Telescope servicing decision

I am happy to say that NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has just announced that a Shuttle will be used to service the Hubble. The plan is to use Discovery in May 2008 for the task of replacing gyroscopes and batteries, installing the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, the Wide-Field Camera 3, and a refurbished Fine Guidance Sensor, and possibly repairing the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.

Al

Cafe Scientifique on “Planetary Systems and Extraterrestrial Life”

This three half-hour collector’s set of MP3s allows you to vicariously live out your dream of being present at a Cafe Scientifique. Ralph Pudritz and Doug Welch of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada were the presenters. This informal, discussed-oriented event took place at the King Paisley Pub – an excellent place for astronomy outreach, in my humble opinion.

Listen to the audio by downloading parts 1, 2, and 3.

Download

Download

Download

Behind the Scenes

I posted a little video on my observatory blog showing some “behind the scenes” stuff of the making of a little segment for an upcoming PBS documentary called “Seeing In The Dark“.

The documentary, which probably won’t be out for another year, features a bunch of amateur astronomers, including visual observers, astro-imagers and photometry dorks like me. It is based on the book of the same name by Timothy Ferris.

Click the image on the right to watch it.

Posts from the Ledge

Hola Slackerpedes from Cerro Pachon in Chile!

I am writing from the observing room at the Gemini South 8m telescope. Sadly, our first night here was clouded out. There was a spectacular sunset … due to the high clouds, so it is unclear (sic) how much observing will be done tonight. The weather hasn’t been reliably clear in the past weeks – we are expecting a mix of usable nights and … frustrating nights.

The Gemini telescopes operate using a “multi-instrument queue”. Many instruments are mounted semi-permanently on the telescope and the actual observations executed on a given night depend on the conditions and the ranking of the scientific program. If the water vapor is especially low and a highly-ranked infrared program has available objects, it will be executed. Programs that require the very crispest images are only done when those conditions exist. It is an excellent way to get the most scientific productivity out of the telescope.

Our program is to obtain spectra of supernovae light echoes in the Large Magellanic Clouds. We already have some images from the queue but need a few more to be ready to “cut masks” to do multi-object spectroscopy using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS). We also have some masks ready to use for other light echo brightenings. Now all we need is some clear weather! Actually, we can make use of partially cloudy conditions for some of our observations – another benefit of the multi-instrument queue.
To learn more about the Gemini Observatory, visit http://www.gemini.edu/

I’ll send along some audio segments soon!

Best regards,

Doug

Local Boy Done Good

Queen’s guitarist, a former astronomy grad student, writes an astronomy book.

Stellar Worlds #2 and #3

Palomar Video

Damage to Mauna Kea

First and foremost, there are no reports of major injuries. As for the equipment…

• Here is a report from a staff member at Keck posted in the Astronomy LiveJournal community. (October 16, 2006 @ 22:14 )
• Earthquake Map from Visualizing Science blog
• Subaru Observatory Report
• UKIRT Observatory Report
• JCMT Observatory Report
• CFHT Report
• IRTF Report

Our own Doug Welch is associated with the Gemini Observatory. He is currently on his way to Chile for an observing run. We are planning our next show recording for October 29. He’ll call-in from Chile and give us a first-hand report on what is going on with the Mauna Kea observatories.

This press release was just issued by Keck (Oct 17 10am EST):

Earthquake Update from W. M. Keck Observatory

Kamuela (October 16th, 2006) The W. M. Keck Observatory is recovering
from a 6.6-magnitude earthquake and a series of aftershocks that struck
off the west coast of Hawaii Sunday morning at 7:07 a.m. HST. The
earthquake was the largest to hit Hawaii in 20 years and caused power
and communication failures across the state. There were no injuries at
W. M. Keck Observatory and all personnel are safe.

The Observatory has cancelled observing through Wednesday night and
Observatory personnel are in the process of bringing the facility into a
safe state. The telescopes and instruments will be returned to full
functionality as soon as possible.

As of Monday afternoon, summit technicians report that the primary
mirrors of both Keck telescopes are intact and do not appear damaged.
However, some guiding and pointing systems have been impaired and must
be returned to normal before Observing can resume. As of Monday,officials
estimated it would take a few days to return Keck I tooperational status.
It will take at least this long to restore Keck II to functionality. There is
no damage to observatory computers or servers
and all data has been backed up and is safe. Power has been restored to
all headquarter and summit facilities.

“We have a great team for circumstances like this, and everything that
we are doing is about getting the telescopes working on-sky as soon as
we can in a safe manner,” said W. M. Keck Observatory Director Taft
Armandroff. “There has been an amazing amount of dedication and
resourcefulness by staff at the summit last night and today, and I am
very impressed.”

The headquarter facilities will be open on Tuesday.

Scheduled observing teams are encouraged to contact Observing Director
Bob Goodrich at (808) 881-3869 with questions about specific instruments
or travel to Hawaii.

The W. M. Keck Observatory Web site will provide additional information
as it becomes available at:
http://www.keckobservatory.org/article.php?id=3D95. Those wishing to
receive e-mail updates directly may send requests to:
newsletter@keck.hawaii.edu.

Media Contact:
Laura K. Kinoshita
W.M. Keck Observatory

SG #2.0: Drifting in Space

Without Rebekah in this show, we are adrift. But we do our best to bring you some roundtable on current astro hot (and cold) topics. Click here for show notes.

Energy

There was a “Wanted Pages” entry in the Slackerpedia Galactica for the word “energy“. I banged out a quick paragraph, more as a placeholder than anything else, but it got me thinking. Energy can be somewhat hard to describe. Wikipedia has a good statement to the effect of “the potential for causing changes”. I have been thinking of some examples that illustrate that. I’ll probably do a video podcast about it eventually but here goes in blog form…

Continue reading Energy…