So, one of the two reasons I fell behind on updating this (well, aside from laziness), is that the synthesis imaging workshop came to town. I did not really know what this was about until it happened, so it caught me a bit by surprise.
What was the synthesis imaging workshop, you ask? Well, radio astronomers are an odd lot; instead of having a telescope like normal astronomers, they’ve decided to create arrays of telescopes. You see, if you have a setup of telescopes stretching 40km in extent, you have effectively made a 40km-diameter radio telescope. Thus, the VLA, VLBA, ALMA, SKA, and all the other interferometric arrays. Every unique pair of antennas (and I use antenna and telescope interchangeably in regards to radio) produces a unique baseline (eg. Ant 8 and Ant 17), and, by measuring the amplitude and phase of the incoming radiation (remember, light is a wave. Waves have three important characteristics: amplitude – how ‘tall’ the wave is, frequency/wavelength — a measure of the spacings between crests of waves, and phase – how offset a given wave is from another. Frequency is controlled by the instruments on the antenna, so we don’t worry about it at the moment). By synthesizing all these measurements along all the baselines (there are a total of (N)*(N-1) baselines, where N is the number of antennas), we can get a high resolution image of what we’re looking at.
If you need to reread that last paragraph, I don’t blame you. Synthesis Imaging is kinda tough to get your head around. The workshop, therefore, was basically a one-week introduction to synthesis imaging for grad students, postdocs, and full-time astronomers looking to get involved in radio imaging. Which meant those of us who were undergrads had a tough road laid out for us.
Generally speaking, there were two or three lectures in the morning, a 75 minute lunch break, then three or four more lectures in the evening. Lectures were between 50 and 75 minutes, before questions. It was a lot of information, and it got really technical at multiple times. That said, it was really informative, and I know so much more about synthesis imaging, radio astronomy, the previously mentioned arrays, and CASA/AIPS (computer programs/packages) than I did before hand. It was just a LOT of information. To quote an NRAO scientist, it was like ‘drinking from a fire hose.’
Along with all those lectures, there were some fun events as well. A reception on the first night, a pool party and cookout on Saturday, a hike that I skipped to, watch the US-England game, a trip to the VLA (subject to a future post), a dinner on the second to last night, and a party all provided opportunities for us to turn off our brains for a bit. I got to meet a lot of astronomers, which was a pleasant experience.
One thing I noticed about meeting the other astronomers is that many of them are foreign, and many of them are surprised to see an American who A) cares about soccer and the World Cup, especially to wear jerseys on game days, B)knows the history of the game and watched earlier World Cups and C)played soccer for most of his life. I got to have a lot of fun conversations with English, German, Dutch, Brazilian, Chilean, and Italian fans about their teams, my teams, and soccer in general.
Other interesting happenings from the event include getting to watch the US-England game at a bar next to an Englishman (although he wasn’t quite as open to some friendly badmouthing of each others’ respective nations as I would have liked), having a chat with a British expatriate living in Chile working on ALMA who told me about what it was like during the big earthquake they just had, seeing the first floor of where I have been working, and running into someone who knew one of my friends from Case.
Another benefit to having all of these people in town was that there was a lot more to do. With the approximately 150 people who had been in Socorro no longer here, the town has once again returned to being a dusty old Southwestern town.
