Posts
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An Afternoon Writing at a Cafe
This weekend, I had the urge to write (and a backlog of notes that needed writing). One of the things that had stymied the minimal amount of letter writing I end up doing is an apparent lack of access to quality letter-writing tools. I have a pen, naturally, but finding decent paper and envelopes had proven to be tough (it took me a couple months to find normal letter envelopes in Concepción!). So, yesterday I made a concerted effort to find stationery stores in Santiago and this morning bought some note cards. I had an afternoon working meetup planned with a couple friends, at a nice little cafe in the center of Santiago. It promised to be a sunny and relatively warm winter afternoon, so I grabbed a table outside and started writing.
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The Copa América Centenario and Listening to the Fútbol Crowd in Santiago
The Copa América Centenario is currently taking place in cities across the US. The Copa América is the South Américan soccer confederation tournament. I was lucky enough to attend two matches last year in Concepción, when Chile hosted (and won) the tournament. This June has been a busy one for me, so I have not been paying much attention to the 2016 tournament, beyond occasionally checking the scores to see how the US and Chile were faring.
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Starting the 2016 Ski Season at Valle Nevado
One nice thing about being in Chile while still visiting people in the US is that I get two winters per year. I guess the dream is to have an eternal winter, but two per year isn’t bad.
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Walking Around Observatories
One of my favorite parts of being an astronomer is going on observing runs and collecting new data. I love nearly everything about it – the stars at night, the technology of the control room, and even the surreal sleepiness around 3 or 4 in the morning when you’ve been working for 10 hours and have several more to go. One of the little joys that come with observing is walking around the observatory. Most telescopes are separated from the dorms in which the astronomers and observatory staff sleep, sometimes by up to a few kilometers. To get around, observatories generally provide visiting astronomers with a car. This is certainly quick and convenient (especially considering observatories are at altitude), but I always love walking instead of driving.
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Observing at the Henrietta Swope 1m Telescope
Last night I was at the Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) observing with the Henrietta Swope 1m Telescope. The observing program was aimed at detecting optical counterparts to X-ray sources which were serendipitously seen in other observations. Basically, we see X-rays from a region of the sky, but because we don’t have sensitive optical imaging, we cannot see the galaxy which is the source of the X-rays. So this is a multi-step process to characterize those X-ray sources. First, we need to find the optical galaxy counterpart (these Swope Observations). Then, once we’ve located the galaxy and know its approximate brightness, we can take optical spectra to determine its redshift, and use that to infer a distance. With the distance, we can calculate how luminous the X-ray source is, and the optical spectra can also help us tell what type of source it is (likely an Active Galactic Nucleus of some sort).