Tag Archives: SSO

Stories from Siding Spring Observatory

Posted on April 17, 2013 | 5 comments

Tonight we’re opening the photo exhibition Stories from Siding Spring Observatory at Sydney Observatory.

Baner of the Photo Exhibition Stories from Siding Spring Observatory opening tonight at Sydney Observatory. The Exhibition will be opened to the public between 18 April 2013 and 13 August 2013. As the general visit to Sydney Observatory, it is free.
Credit: Á.R.L-S.

This photo exhibition compiles 25 photos plus four time-lapse videos taken at the Siding Spring Observatory by staff of the Australian Astronomical Observatory. I have actively participated in the organization of this photo exhibition, not only providing some photos (see below) but also the 4 time-lapse videos, one of them specifically prepared for this.

The idea of organizing the photo exhibition came after the terrible bushfires that destroyed the Warrumbungle National Park and seriously affected Siding Spring Observatory on 13th January 2013. Luckily any telescope experienced any damage and we were back at the telescopes just 1 month after the bushfires. However, some houses and facilities, including the ANU Lodge, were destroyed in the bushfires. The vegetation at the site was also seriously affected, and indeed the views from there are not now as beautiful as they were before.

As the brochure of the Exhibition quotes,

Siding Spring Observatory sits on a mountaintop in the Warrumbungle Range, 400 km northwest of Sydney and 25 km west of the town of Coonabarabran. Run by the Australian National University, it is Australia’s most important site for optical astronomy.

On 13 January 2013 a bushfire swept through the observatory. Despite damage to some buildings, the telescopes were unharmed and are now back at work.

The photos in this exhibition tell stories of life and work on the mountain. They were taken by staff of the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), which operates two telescopes there: the 4-m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) and the UK Schmidt telescope.

Yesterday evening some of us were there installing the Exhibition and hanging frames and labels from the walls of the Sydney Observatory:

Working hard to get all frames and labels done on time!
Credit: Á.R.L-S.

Jamie Gilbert (AAO) carefully hanging label to my photo “Day and Night”.
Credit: Á.R.L-S.

The photos I’m providing for the Exhibition are these:

The 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT).
Credit: Á.R.L-S.

The 2dF instrument attached to the primary focus of the AAT.
Note that the mirror of the telescope is opened.
Credit: Á.R.L-S.

Day and Night at the AAT.
Credit: Á.R.L-S.

Circumpolar stars over the AAT on a dark winter night.
Credit: Á.R.L-S.

Double Rainbow at the sunrise over the Warrumbungle National Park. Photos taken from the catwalk of the AAT by Amanda Bauer (AAO) and processed and stitched by me.
Credit: Amanda Bauer & Ángel R. López-Sánchez.

but you can find many more photos I took at Siding Spring Observatory during the last years in this album of my Flickr.

However I have to confess that, as Amanda Bauer says in her blog, the best of the photos we have chosen is this spectacular panorama of the Milky Way over the AAT obtained by Jamie Gilbert (AAO):

Panorama of the Milky Way over the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) using a CANON 5D Mark III. More information about this image: here.
Credit: Jamie Gilbert (AAO)

and that is why this photo is the largest one!

Jamie Gilbert and the frame with his panorama “The Milky Way over the AAT” during the installation of the photos of the “Stories from Siding Spring Observatory” Exhibition at Sydney Observatory on the evening of 16 April 2013
Credit: Á.R.L-S.

The Photo Exhibition Stories from Siding Spring Observatory is open to the public between 18 April 2013 and 13 August 2013. As the general visit to Sydney Observatory, it is free, so do not miss it if you have a chance!

5 Comments

Posted in Observatories, Outreach

Tagged 2013, 2dF, AAT, Outreach, Photo Exhibition, SSO, Sydney Observatory, timelapses

NEA 2012 DA14 observed from the AAT

Posted on February 16, 2013 | 8 comments

Yesterday I explained we are resuming the scientific observations at Siding Spring Observatory (NSW, Australia) since the recent bushfires on 13 January 2013. Today we have used this telescope to observe the Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) 2012 DA14, which is getting its closest encounter to our planet today (it will be at only 27000 km from the surface of the Earth). Here you have the details:

The path of the NEA 2012 DA14 from the AAT. Observed during the evening twilight on the 15 February 2013 using the FPI camera of the 2dF instrument at the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope located at Siding Spring Observatory (NSW, Australia). 25 frames, 2 seconds exposure each, 5 seconds between frames. First frame obtained at 09:53:54 UT, last one at 09:56:22.
Support Astronomers: Lee Spitler (MQ/AAO) & Andy Green (AAO).
Night Assistant at the AAT: Steve Chapman (AAO).
Edition of the data and movie: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO/MQ).
Link to the video in my Flick.

The data were obtained by Lee Spitler (MQ/AAO), Andy Green (AAO) and Steve Chapman (AAO) during the evening twilight while waiting the sky was dark enough to start the scheduled scientific observations. We will try to get more data of this object during the morning twilight. More to come soon!

Update at 14:45 AEST, 16th Feb 2013

I’ve checked there are some problems to watch the video using smartphones and tablets such iPhones and iPad. Just try this link and it should work, although you may get a low resolution version of it. I’m creating a new video to be uploaded to YouTube. At the same time, I’ve just finished this image showing a mosaic with 13 of the frames obtained for the video.

Mosaic with the path of the NEA 2012 DA14 from the AAT. Observed during the evening twilight on the 15 February 2013 using the FPI camera of the 2dF instrument at the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope located at Siding Spring Observatory (NSW, Australia). Each frame has an exposition time of 2 seconds.Times are shown in Universal Time (UT), add +11 hours to get the local time in NSW.
Support Astronomers: Lee Spitler (MQ/AAO) & Andy Green (AAO).
Night Assistant at the AAT: Steve Chapman (AAO).
Edition of the data and movie: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO/MQ).

Finally, I confirm we also observed the NEA at the AAT during the morning twilight.

Update at 16:55 AEST, 18th Feb 2013

An updated version of the video, which is now in HD and includes the celestial coordinates, has been included in this excellent article published today in The Conversation by Simon O’Toole (AAO).

8 Comments

Posted in Asteroids, Observation, Optical, Personal, Profesional, Solar System, Wavelengths

Tagged 2012 DA14, 2dF, AAT, astronomy, NEA, SSO

Back observing at the Anglo-Australian Telescope

Posted on February 15, 2013 | 3 comments

On 13th January 2013 the Siding Spring Observatory and the beautiful Warrumbungle National Park near Coonabarabran (NSW, Australia) were terribly affected by the worst bushfire in NSW in the last decade. Although the astronomical facilities have not experienced any severe damage, the bushfire has destroyed some houses at the Observatory (including the Lodge), burnt tens of houses and destroyed the majority of the trees in the National Park.

However, tonight Thursday 14 February, after a month and a day since the bushfire, astronomers are recommencing observing with the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory. I’m one of these astronomers who are now performing the observations remotely from the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) headquarters in North Ryde, Sydney, supported by technical staff at the telescope. The AAO has made public today a press release informing that astronomers are back to work at the AAT!.

The Spindle Galaxy with the AAT. It is an edge-on lenticular galaxy classified as NGC 3155 or Caldwell 53. The data were obtained on 14 February 2013 using the FPI camera of the 2dF instrument at the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope located at Siding Spring Observatory. 8 x 20 s + 5 x 40 s + 1 x 60 s integration time (460 s), combined with IRAF. Colours derived using U, V and I images obtained at the 2.5m Cerro Tololo International Observatory by Kuchinski et al. (2000).
First astronomical observations after the bushfires on 13 January 2013.
Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO/MQ) & Lee Spitler (MQ/AAO),
Night Assistant at the AAT: Steve Chapman (AAO).

Although we are using tonight the Two Degrees Field (2dF) instrument with the AAOmega spectrograph, which allows the acquisition of up to 392 simultaneous spectra of objects anywhere within a two degree field on the sky, we have also used the auxiliary camera that 2dF possesses, the Focal Plane Imager, to take some images of the Spindle galaxy, also known NGC 3115 or Caldwell 53, a lenticular (S0) galaxy located at around 32 million light years from Earth.

However, tonight’s observations are having the AAT looking up to a billion light-years out into space to test our ideas about the still mysterious Dark Energy.

3 Comments

Posted in Astrophysics, Elliptical Galaxies, Galaxies, Observation, Optical, Personal, Profesional, Wavelengths

Tagged 2012 DA14, 2dF, AAT, Asteroid, astronomy, FPI, SSO