My past blog entries have been about spacecraft, but I've primarily been a ground-based telescope observer throughout my career and I still do a fair amount of observing throughout the year. Being an observer can make for a very interesting work and sleep schedule sometimes!
Few things in observing are certain except that at the end of every September and March we submit observing proposals for the projects that we hope to do in the following telescope semester. Each semester is a 6 month period that (for many observatories) runs from February to July ("A") and August to January ("B"). I'll be writing a proposal for the 2019A semester on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). I've been observing with the IRTF for several years now and it's an extremely reliable telescope. It's fantastic for asteroid observations and a large majority of the published near-infrared asteroid spectra are from this telescope. For the past several semesters, I've been proposing to observe asteroids in the 3-micron region. This region is well known to show evidence of water or hydrated silicates (silicates with H2O in the mineral structure), but we're actually looking at objects in the Main Belt that we expect to lack any sign of water at all. We do this because we've seen a weak 3-micron signature on parts of the Moon and some near-Earth asteroids that don't have water or hydrated minerals. It looks like this weak signature is instead due to the Solar wind! We're collecting a sample of Main Belt objects to see if this is also true in the Main Belt population of anhydrous objects. I'm also coordinating the submission of a number of proposals to large telescopes for additional observations of the lightcurve of the Didymos system in support of the DART mission. We've got a number of really great team members leading these proposals to obtain additional data so we can determine things like the rotational period of the system secondary ("Didymoon") and the inclination of Didymoon's orbit about Didymos A. With all the thinking ahead, I still have to consider the observing that I was awarded last proposal season. Last week, I was lucky enough to have two different observing windows on the NASA IRTF. In the very early morning hours of Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to my home work station and logged onto a computer thousands of miles away to use a telescope on the top of Mauna Kea. It never seems to impress me just how easy it is to observe from a world class facility from the comfort of my home! For these IRTF observations, there are three instrument computers that I log into each night: bigdog, guidedog, and MORIS. Bigdog is in charge of the science. On this computer, I can select the spectroscopy mode, start each set of observations, obtain the necessary calibrations, and monitor the data quality. Guidedog is a camera that helps me monitor the observations. All (or most) of the light from my asteroids should enter the spectral slit, which sends light into the spectrograph. With guidedog I can monitor the area around the slit to be sure that the asteroid hasn't moved out of the slit or stars haven't crossed the slit. MORIS is the camera that we use to control our guiding. MORIS uses the "extra" visible wavelength light that the near-infrared telescope isn't using to hold the position of my asteroid steady (and hopefully guarantee it's always in the slit!). Tuesday morning was a clear night and we obtained great 3-micron data of the Main Belt asteroid (30) Urania. Wednesday morning started strong, but the weather turned bad quickly. Clouds started forming directly over the mountain! I wasn't able to get the data I was hoping for, but there's always next time.
1 Comment
11/2/2018 02:03:26 am
If Guidedog has been a great help in making you even more productive, then you need to stick with it then. I understand that you're having a great time for your job. You may be busy for quite some time now, but what's important is you're enjoying what you're doing. In performing our tasks, what's important is we can fulfill everything with a smile on your face. By the way, Guidedog was just new in the industry, isn't it? I cannot wait to experience its benefits because I am pretty sure it will work on me too! I am already hoping for that.
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About the Author(S)The contributors to this blog are the students, faculty, and other researchers in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at Northern Arizona University. If you have any suggestions, or would like to contribute to this blog, please email mark.salvatore@nau.edu for more information. Archives
January 2019
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