This is our (team #3) last day here.
During the day we finalized the pending issues inside the dome. We made sure the telescope could be pointed towards the East, so that in February the next teams will be able to point at WR140 early in the morning.
During the night, we taught Rémi the complete process of using the telescope: from starting with a target, getting its coordinates, calculating the local coordinates to move the mount, how to read and set the Declination and Hour Angle circles for pointing the telescope, how to use the finder, how to make callibration exposures, how to operate the dome, how to upload data to the ftp servers, etc.
While still in daytime, humidity had dropped amazingly from 100% to below 30%, in around one hour.
At night, we managed to point and measure WR140. For the first time, I saw in a single spectrum taken at MONS the expected excess emission due to stelar winds colliding; and this was visible on a mere line profile over the image, really before any processing of the spectra. At around 20:00~21:00 of the 12th of January of 2009, we are very close to periastron, now is the time when the winds of the WR and O stars are really colliding heavily!
After WR140, clouds rolled in and did not allow much observation afterward. Members of team 3 when to bed, saying goodbye to Rémi, and Rémi remained up waiting for better weather...
During the day we finalized the pending issues inside the dome. We made sure the telescope could be pointed towards the East, so that in February the next teams will be able to point at WR140 early in the morning.
During the night, we taught Rémi the complete process of using the telescope: from starting with a target, getting its coordinates, calculating the local coordinates to move the mount, how to read and set the Declination and Hour Angle circles for pointing the telescope, how to use the finder, how to make callibration exposures, how to operate the dome, how to upload data to the ftp servers, etc.
While still in daytime, humidity had dropped amazingly from 100% to below 30%, in around one hour.
At night, we managed to point and measure WR140. For the first time, I saw in a single spectrum taken at MONS the expected excess emission due to stelar winds colliding; and this was visible on a mere line profile over the image, really before any processing of the spectra. At around 20:00~21:00 of the 12th of January of 2009, we are very close to periastron, now is the time when the winds of the WR and O stars are really colliding heavily!
After WR140, clouds rolled in and did not allow much observation afterward. Members of team 3 when to bed, saying goodbye to Rémi, and Rémi remained up waiting for better weather...
1 comment:
Dear Astrofil.
How surprised was I, finding on information powerhouse, the BBC, the explanation for the full moon to appear much larger when close to the horizon was an optical illusion.
Fermat is twitching on his grave.
Moon's light travelling on vacuum towards our eyes, will refract more or less depending on the angle it enters our atmosphere, thus causing a lens effect. A lot like when we are submerged on a swimming pool, when looking at people outside, they all look like Roger from American Dad.
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