o Zoe and I were up at the crack of dawn (well I woke up at about 6am cos I couldn’t sleep!). We had to head down to NOAA to be “vetted and approved” entry into this government facility. NOAA stands for National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (It’s basically the NASA of the atmospheric/oceanographic worlds!!!!). It is set in the foothills of the Rockies and the view from NOAA is beautiful. They even have an observatory up there!

I was really ill today – Zoe infected me with her lurgi! I was truly suffering by the afternoon and felt quite conscious about coughing through everyone’s talks! As far as the meeting went – I learned lots about what some of the dominant research groups in the field are doing.Zoe and I both gave our talks and got some feedback and ideas on what to do next. The conference dinner was held at Dushanbe Teahouse which was beautiful! they serve about 40 odd teas there including one from Newara Eliya!

Thursday was pretty heavy going at the conference, not entirely convinced i understood all of it. I did learn some new stats methods though, that i shall try out. On Thursday I finally managed to find a swimming outfit and went for 1/2 hour swim in the pool at the hotel. The pool was a bit weird though – it was really warm, like the temperature of a hot tub [I actually started to sweat whilst i was swimming some lengths!]

So my colleague (Zoe) and I flew out to Denver on Monday for an Ozone Trend workshop at NOAA in Boulder. We were lucky cos we managed to nab bulkhead seats so had oodles of room on the plane (quite ironic bearing in mind we aren’t the tallest of people!!!). It was daylight for the whole duration of the flight so it was a little difficult to snooze on the plane. We arrived in Denver at sunset and had the fun and games of hiring an automatic car (with Zoe only having driven one once and me never having driven one before!). The 40 min drive from Denver to Boulder was “interesting”, but I am glad that I downloaded the CoPilot Live from the iphone app store before i came out here – it meant I didn’t need to read a map in the dark and get travel sick!!!

By the time we arrived at the Boulder Outlook Hotel
it was really late and we were shattered. The hotel itself is lovely, we have a massive room and there is a pool, sauna, climbing wall and video game room! Interestingly the hotel has a “zero waste” policy so almost everything is recycled.

On Tuesday after a much need rest Zoe and I decided to walk the boulder Creek Path. Having lived in Milton Keynes it is like an uber wide redway that follows Boulder Creek from the town centre right up into the mountains. Its very popular with joggers/cyclists. We walked to Pearl Street (the pedestrianised shopping zone), which apparently is really famous for being so different to typical US shopping town centres. To us though, it was like a typical British high street. After having a look at all the outdoors shops and CRAZY Halloween stores(!) we ended popped into the Walnut Brewery where we sampled some local beer! After this we went up back on Boulder Creek path and followed it to Settlers Park. From there we took the Red Rocks Trail and got up a bit higher. We headed back to the hotel by sunset. All in all it was probably about a 10 mile round walk.

My overall impression of Boulder is that it is extremely different to other US cities/towns I’ve been to. Everywhere is very pro recycling and green (lots of solar panels on roofs etc) there are pedestrianised areas and yo ACTUALLY see people using them(!), cycle paths, footpaths, hiking paths etc and more importantly the waitresses/waiters don’t harass you all the time with the really fake banter (I refer back to Tuscon where the the staff at breakfast told Cat she had a lovely English accent (she is Portuguese!)).

So I am in La Palma doing my astronomy thing. Or rather not doing my astronomy thing because of the weather 🙁 I am supposed to be using an instrument called FIES on the NOT to do radial velocity measurements with some of the folk from Queens to look for exoplanets, but alas it is too cold.

(The rest of my photos are on the photos page.)

Last night we observed until about 1:30 when it got cloudy, and when I say cloudy what I mean is the clouds descended and we were in them. Then tonight we got as far as opening the dome when it got too humid again, so we had to stop. Ordinarily when the humidity drops you can start observing again, but the temperature here is cold, very cold, so everything is freezing. We had to drive down from the telescope to the residence, and we had the support astronomer drive with us – as the roads were frozen. His advice to us when driving down was not to wear our seatbelts so we could jump out of the car if we start sliding towards the cliff edge. Hmmm. Oh well we made it down anyway and am now sitting in the residence. The temperature is rising now though, so we may end up going back to the telescope tonight….

My journey here was fairly uneventful, I came via Madrid (and didn’t lose my luggage), then Tenerife. The only thing that did phase me somewhat was when I saw the tiny little plane that goes from Tenerife to La Palma, it was a tiny little two propellar engine jobbie. Ho hum, it got me here I suppose.

Tomorrow I go back down the mountain in the afternoon, but my flight back doesn’t leave until Sunday, so I have to spend a night in that four star hotel with the indoor waterfall and heated swimming pool.

It’s a tough life this astronomy malarkey.

I had an interview for a position at Leicester University today, and guess what, I got it 🙂

The position is an archive scientist, working with the LEDAS stuff and the superwasp stuff. The LEDAS side is looking after the hardware and software of the X-ray archive server at Leicester, so lots of web interface stuff to huge X-ray databases 🙂 The superwasp stuff is along similar lines; looking after the hardware and software of the archive. This is fast becoming one of the biggest astronomical databases in the World, so lots of things for me to break. Then there is the research side too, I get to do independent research too!

So all in all it really is an awesome job for me, since I do the web stuff as a hobby this is kind of merging of my job and my hobby 🙂

They said I can start at the beginning of November, so by then I need to have finished decorating the house and sold it. Then I can go and move up to Leicester. Oh yeah, and I need to finish that minor task also known as my thesis….

So today Olly and I went to Farnborough International Airshow to represent the Schome Space Experiment team in a nationally run competition for high school students to design an experiment to go on board a satellite!  Unfortunately none of the Schome students could go, but they did prepare a poster for the BNSC “Space for Inspiration” exhibit at the airshow.

Olly and I presented the Schome space experiment poster to Ian Pearson MP (Minister of Science and Innovation) and other invited guests. Olly and I actually got mistaken for High School students by some of the people there!!!!  It might have had something to do with the “bothered” T-shirt Olly was wearing!!!!! LOL! We had a chance to spy on the other entries (and entrants!) and even Buzz Aldrin made an appearance to chat to people. Olly and I also received three book prizes presented by Ian Pearson MP to the Schome Team for getting through to the final.

After presenting the poster Olly and I went for a wonder to look at various things from the Airbus A380 taking off, to acrobatic fighter jets.  We filmed everything but editing the podcast is taking ages…. i will get around to posting a link to it at some point. All in all a tiring day!

Well I have been back from the S.A.A.O. for a few days (when I say back I mean in Cape Town), so I thought I would let you all know how it went.

Firstly it is beautiful up there, the sunsets are amazing and, as you would expect from an astronomical facility, all the telescopes are cool looking too! Have a look at the pics. I even went to see SuperWasp this time.

I was using the 1.9m with a new polarimeter that Steve Potter is commissioning, this meant that there were plenty of bugs to play with. I got to have lots of fun figuring out why stuff wasn’t working and if the stuff we thought was working really was.

For most of the week I was in charge of the telescope and Steve looked after the instrument. This was cool ‘cos the telescope is operated from a control panel directly underneath it (instead of from the control room like most modern domes). So I got to see the whole thing move as I pressed the prettily lit buttons 🙂

We lost three nights of our seven, two for cloud and one for humidity. It’s so incredibly frustrating losing a night because of humidity, you can see the stars perfectly but you can’t open the dome as water condenses on the telescope 🙁

About half way through the week Steve found a spider in his room. I kinda wish he hadn’t showed it to me, it was big and hairy. So every night from then on when I got in (even if I was really tired) I would shake the bed down, what a girl.

It wasn’t until the trip back to Cape Town that it was pointed out that the nearest doctor was about two hours away, and the nearest hospital three! I think it’s probably best I didn’t know that really, since I am sure that subconsciously I would have made myself walk off a gantry or something.

So I eventually managed to find some internet to connect to the world!

My trip got off to a rather hectic start, the bus to Heathrow thought it would be fun to break down before it picked us up from Milton Keynes. Of course this meant that when a replacement bus turned up it was getting rather late. Then the new bus decided that it would go to Luton, now Luton airport I don’t mind so much, but for some very odd reason the driver went to the town centre first, in rush hour. Then, because we were obviously ahead of schedule, we went via Hemal Hempstead, sigh. So by the time we got to the airport I had less than an hour to get on the plane…..

Now the bus drops you at the central bus station at Heathrow, turns out terminal 4 is a train ride away from there, sigh. On the train I jumped, it didn’t matter how much I was willing the train to move, it didn’t (note to self: improve Jedi mind skills to train moving level). Eventually it left, then when I arrived the running began…..

I ran to the bag drop point (having eagerly checked-in online), then I waited. And then I waited some more. Eventually got to the front, now as much as I love to laugh about my passport picture with people, there’s a time and a place, and when I have less than 30 minutes to catch a plane it is not one of those times, admittedly it is one of those places. But definitely not the time.

So bag checked I began what must have looked like a scene from a bad film where some lunatic runs across the airport, weaving in and out of the crowd, jumping bags and the like (I wonder if I could ask B.A.A. for a copy of the C.C.T.V.). I got to the security gate and amazingly there was only a few people in front, still, gonna be cutting it close.

Through the security gate, of course it beeps, even though there is nothing metallic on me (I am sure I have been tagged in some kind of dastardly secret service plot – one day I shall do it naked. Just to prove a point you understand). And then to run to the gate, carrying my belongings in my now rather sweaty arms. I look at my watch as I run, and I have minutes left, I’m gonna make it!

I get to the gate and the woman said: “Are you going to Cape Town?”, “Yes, pant pant”, I said, half expecting her to say the gate closed early, “Well it’s been delayed by half an hour” she said. “Pfffffffffffff”, I replied with my utmost disdain. So I had got all sweaty and done exercise for no reason! Still it meant that I could buy a plug adapter and get the correct currency (Euros wasn’t it?).

As you might expect, the B.A. webpage that let me pick a row with more leg room lied, and I was stuck with my knees banging the chair in front. Being an overnight flight meant that I would get absolutely no sleep (I never do on planes). So when I arrived ten hours later I was shattered. Of course it was too early to check into my hotel, so I had to go and sit somewhere for a few hours. But I got to my room eventually, and that’s where I am now.

I head up to the observatory on Tuesday morning, so until then I am an Englishman abroad, now where’s that midday sun? I need some to get on with some lobsterification……

So last July I went to an Astrobiology themed summer school in Austria, where the team I was in (the Red team) designed an astrobiology mission to Europa. It was all good fun, I met some fun people who i am still in contact with 😉 and learned lots too!

Imagine my surprise when a friend sent me this link

http://www.esa.int/esaED/SEM5PYOR4CF_index_1.html#subhead4

I have made it onto the ESA website – the picture makes me look so brainy too LOL! Though credit goes to Fatah on our team for actually supplying the maths…I was just striking a pose as the glamorous assistant 🙂

I have been back from Chile for a while now and figured that I should really get on with the bragging about what I did 🙂

I went to go do some observing for a collegue at the La Silla observatory, we had two nights on the 3.6m behemoth with the EFOSC2 instument strapped on it, this meant we could look for circular polarization from our targets (SW Sex systems). The facility is awesome, its about two and half hours drive up a mountain (at 2,500 ish m above sea level), there are about ten telescopes up there and lots of stuff for all us astronomers to keep us busy. The views were awesome, particularly the sunsets.

I had a few days in Santiago to do my touristy thing before and after I went to the observatory so I went to a few things. The best thing was the Pre-Columbian history museum, it’s a rather small place but has loads of cool stuff dating back forever.

Sadly, the weather turned a bit crappy towards the end so I didn’t make the trip up to the big Jesus thing that looks over Santiago (sorry Dan). Maybe next time.

As you can imagine, I took lots of photos, all in the Chile section of the photos page.

Annoyingly some fat Chilean dude managed to knock my laptop out of the overhead compartment on the plane onto the floor. So I am having much fun playing with the inevitable insurance pleasantries.

O.K., gloating over.

Well I have been incogneto for the last week, or is that incomunicardo, in Mallorca, teaching. We, as astrophysics Ph.D students, get to go and strut our stuff and exercise our brains by showing OU undergrads how to do space stuff, mostly telescope work, at the OAM for the SXR208 course we do. This was the first real time I had used a telescope like this (i.e. setting it up and moving it etc.), as the big installations tend to have all this done for you, so it was a very steep learning curve.

Me and Steve had a few hours to play around on the first night so we took a few pretty pictures, the moon and the sombrero galaxy, not too exciting, but not too bad for our first attempt.

Steve and I had the unfortunate problem of being our indecisive selves all week, not too much of a problem when our respective other halfs are around, but when they are not then it is an almost impossible chore to pick a place to eat! We did have one afternoon off, in which we went in the Med, well we couldn’t not.

All in all I had a great time, the nights were long, the students were really nice to me (thanks if any of you find this), and it was really rewarding. I think I just about managed to bluff my way to the students thinking I knew what I was doing 🙂 Just have to get back to work now 🙁