Early morning post

As you may know, my research uses radio and sub-mm wavelength observations.  Is my job like Jodie Foster in the movie Contact?  I saw that movie for the first time recently, just so that I could answer that question.  And the answer is: yes and no.  I do travel to observatories, like Arecibo and the VLA which were featured in the movie, and the locations of the observatories are often (always?) remarkable.  Although I haven't been to those two particular observatories (and I would like to!), I have used both types of telescopes: "single dish" (like Arecibo in Puerto Rico) and "interferometer" (like VLA, and CARMA).  But, I have never "listened" to my data, nor have I been in a spacecraft like in Jodie Foster's adventure.

There are also several "modes" of observing, two of which are queue observing and non-queue (well, I don't actually know the proper name for that).  Here at CARMA we are doing queue observing, in which many scientists from all over the world have applied for telescope time, and told us what they would like observed, so that we can schedule most efficiently.  That means that I am not currently observing for myself, nor is my own data flowing in.  Rather, the data get piped out to the respective scientists, and they don't have to lose sleep over the data acquiring.  They also miss out on all the fun ;).

That "fun" comment seems fitting, as it's 5:21 am, and I'm awake waiting for the current observation to finish, an alarm will go off, and I can proceed with the observations.  In fact, we're running two observations at once, because we have split the array of 23 antennas into one array of 15 and the other of 8 antennas.  I woke up at 4:30 to run the second array, and in a short while, the first array will finish what it's currently observing and we can move onto the next target. The brilliant thing is that I can run a "queue" script and (if I do it properly), it should proceed with the observations automatically, so I can "sleep on the job" until it's time to start the day for real.  But, when something goes wrong, that alarm will sound with circus music, and I will (bleary-eyed) attempt to diagnose the problem.   So, as I said, I have never listened to my data like Jodie Foster, but I do in fact keep a keen ear listening "for" the data, and no noise is what I like to hear.

I leave you with a photo:

This is my co-observer.  I'm looking in from outside to take the photo, through the blinds of the window with the greatest view of the antennas.  The blue and white screen towards the right is the control computer.  Right now, I'm sitting at one of these desks as I write, and I'm looking out at the sun reflecting off the antennas, waiting for the snow to come.