Back from Kitt Peak late Sunday night. We got two MINUTES of useful science data, on an X-ray binary star, for a collaborator of a collaborator ("Pablo is desperate.") Well, "Pablo's Desperation" as I dubbed the target, was bright enough (about 9-10 magnitude) that a two-minute spectrum was a good deal. All our primary targets were about 10,000 times fainter and would have taken at least an hour's work. As it was, the telescope operator threatened us with the rising humidity 30 seconds into the two-minute exposure.
Miscellaneous science stuff. Next big telescope proposal deadline is March 15, for the Chandra X-ray Observatory. I'm thinking about putting in a proposal for ultraviolet imaging with Galex. I should have obtained deep (43k seconds) X-ray observations this past week on an interesting broad absorption line quasar with XMM-Newtwon.
Hmm, this is disturbing. I just went and searched on "Brotherton" at this webpage and I see like four tries. All of them are commented with something like "Observation not performed due to solar flare" or "Observation experienced high radiation." I'm now worried I've got some very crappy data heading my way...dang! I've been waiting for over two years for this.
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We're having a search for a new faculty member, in experimental physics, here at Wyoming. The first candidate is in town now, and I'll be spending a lot of time at his presentations, meals, etc., so I can decided how much I think I'll like this guy to be around as a colleague for the next few to thirty years. Next week, we'll do it again with someone else. It's a lot of effort and time for everyone involved on both sides, but the stakes are high.
Posted by Mike at February 24, 2005 11:36 AM