Trip to the Allen Telescope Array – June 7, 2012

This week I worked at the Allen Telescope Array (the ATA). The SETI Institute uses the ATA to search the heavens for any signs of life in the galaxy that may be transmitting radio signals.

Today was a sunny morning and a cloudy afternoon. The temperature was a bit cool for this time of year. I took some pictures that may be of interest.

One of the 42 dish antennas

Arriving at the ATA

Mount Lassen Still has a lot of snow. This picture was taken while standing in the center of the ATA.

The morning was sunny and clear. See the moon in the sky.

The afternoon was cloudy - but it did not rain.

More Antennas

Tiny flowers were everywhere if you looked close enough. This one was about 2cm in diameter

Yellow flowers among the rocks

The Signal Processing Room

For more information about the Allen Telescope Array and SETI observations:

SETI observing status and schedule

The ATA

SetiQuest.org

Stretched out

A piece of Mars: Dunes near the north pole take on a stretched appearance. It’s been proposed that ice in the dunes acts to cement them, which makes them look elongated. (HiRISE PSP_010219_2785)

Transit of Venus – Webcast from Astronomers Without Borders

It seems that the whole world is watching the transit of Venus right now, its a strange time of day here as I am at home in Manchester and its 12.20am where the webstream from Mauna Kea via Nasa Edge’s webstream is showing 13.20pm. After several attempts to get online and connect to various webstreams I finally found the U stream site for the Astronomers Without Borders stream. I remember vividly watching the transit of Venus 8 years ago from the Godlee Observatory, again from Manchester where we had 150 members of the public and staff from Manchester University and UMIST come into the Observatory to observe the transit.

We are already over an hour into the transit now where gathered round my laptop at home with family members amazed at the views coming over the internet viewed the first contact of Venus and then second contact with the black drop effect, what is especially special for me is my son’s interest this time round as he is now old enough to understand that this is a once in a lifetime event and he thinks astronomy is now (after 12 years of cajoling him to take an interest) “really cool”. He is now fast asleep as thank goodness to modern technology tomorrow there will probably be a Youtube video somewhere where he can watch a repeat of the event. Its amazing to think that only 8 years ago technology and web-streaming was not as advanced as it is today and even I could not have imagined that I would be joining thousands of people across the globe view the second transit of venus and be able to share images here on Cosmic Diary. So I’m sharing some screen shots which I have taken over the course of the transit so far.

Boulder tracks

A piece of Mars: You can’t easily tell here, but you’re looking at a steep slope that is high at the bottom of the image and flattens out at the top of the image (the small dunes at the top sit at the foot of the wall). What’s neat here are the many small boulder tracks, formed as rocks get knocked down. A road through this canyon would need a sign saying “Warning Falling Rocks”. (HiRISE ESP_026356_1960)

Active wind erosion

A piece of Mars: Bright rocks are being scoured and shaped by dark (bluish) sand. On Mars, active geologic activity is easy to identify: when there aren’t many craters visible, you’re probably looking at a surface that is undergoing change. This is a good example of such a surface. (HiRISE ESP_016000_1670)

Festoons of geology past

A piece of Mars: Erosion by sandblasting has revealed layers in volcanic rock. Likely nearly horizontal, the wind here has shaped the surface so the layers appear to be festoons, swirling across the landscape. (HiRISE ESP_021627_1975)

Swirls and stripes

A piece of Mars: I know, I keep showing ripples. But they’re all so different. This one has a distinct swirl appearance, like it’s stretched and twisted taffy. The complexities of the winds that create these things are not at all understood. (HiRISE PSP_003101_1320)

Visited wind streaks

A piece of Mars: Back in 2007, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity spent a great deal of time investigating the rim of Victoria crater. Here is the northern rim of the crater, showing three dark (bluish) sandy streaks formed by the wind as it blows dark sand out of the crater. You can see small dark ripples inside the crater, the source of the dark sand. And if you look very carefully you can see the tracks the rover left behind. (HiRISE PSP_009141_1780)

Complex winds

A piece of Mars: My brain keeps seeing it as stuffed pillows, but it’s the other way around — the sun is coming from the upper left, so the centers of the little polygons are low and their edges are sharp-crested dunes. Or maybe ripples, we’re still not sure. Stare at it until your brain makes it work that way. The little ripples inside them were formed after the big ones. I can tell because their orientation is so strongly affected by the topography of the big ones. (HiRISE ESP_026599_1500)

Tuning forks of the wind.

A piece of Mars: Small, dark ripples have overridden larger, bright ones. The larger ones have some interesting shapes — arcs, splits that resemble tuning forks, and even circles. Their shape is accentuated by the smaller, very regular ripples between them. (HiRISE PSP_004077_1325).