An astronomer in Texas – 2
–part 2 of the essay An astronomer in Texas– Having arrived in Texas, our final trip was a drive through the mountainside. While taking photos out of the car is a challenge, the light through the clouds and the pale traces of plant life on the rocky hills made it worth a try.
An astronomer in Texas – 3
–part 3 of the essay An astronomer in Texas– The first time we could see the observatory. The road divides the image and provides a nice visual cue as to the difference of the telescopes: the left one, called HET, is an experimental, modern 10 meter class telescope that however can only rotate and not […]
An astronomer in Texas – 4
–part 4 of the essay An astronomer in Texas– Having reached the top, weather got worse quickly. Here, one can see the HET, which is located on the opposite hill, in more detail. Infrared was able to pierce the fog while visibility was much worse in the visible.
An astronomer in Texas – 5
–part 5 of the essay An astronomer in Texas– The weather cleared (more or less) nicely for the first night of the observing run. However, several thunderstorms were still visible on the horizon, which led to a sight I never thought I could see: lightning arcs below the milky way. Taken in full spectrum, lightning […]
An astronomer in Texas – 6
–part 6 of the essay An astronomer in Texas– Several days later, an astrophysicist’s worst nightmare happened! Forest fires several dozen kilometers away spread out and slowly crept closer towards the observatory. We had to close down the dome and enjoy the show while everthing smelled like barbecue. Thankfully, the fire department was successful in […]
An astronomer in Texas – 7
–part 7 of the essay An astronomer in Texas– Everything looked more peaceful on the next day. Sadly, infrared revealed a suspicious “cloud” in the sky, which is likely ash and not water. On the right, one can see how it slowly dissolves in the wind.
An astronomer in Texas – 8
–part 8 of the essay An astronomer in Texas– Our visibility was extremely poor in the following night, i.e. while we couldn’t detect a cloud with our sky surveillance camera, stars appeared to be much fainter than they should be. Since we wanted to do spectroscopy where every photon counts, this was a huge problem. […]
Infrared ash and full moon
Sometimes, strange things occur in astronomy and this was one of those nights. While observing in Texas, we realized that our instruments recorded almost no light but the sky was cloud-free. I therefore went outside to take infrared images which is when we finally realized what was going on. Seen here, the pink glow in […]
An astronomer in Texas – 9
–part 9 of the essay An astronomer in Texas– The next day, with an early end of the night due to the ash particles, we decided to take a walk and explore the surrounding area. The so-called red edge makes every plant appear very bright in the infrared and cacti are no exception – they […]
Alta Via Merano covered in clouds
The Alta Via Merano, located in South Tyrol, is one of the most beautiful hiking trails in Europe. We were particularly lucky since the clouds were about to lift just when we started. This photo shows the last seconds right before that, while to our eyes it was still intransparent. People often ask me how […]
An astronomer in Texas – 10
–part 10 of the essay An astronomer in Texas– Finally, success! Clear, dark skies for science and also for photography. The milky way is fascinating both in the visible and the infrared, but I prefer the mix that is created by this filter and wavelength-sorted with blue corresponding to green, green to red and red […]
The lake of lago di garda
Lago di garda, or lake Garda, is very popular with tourists, particularly from Germany. It is a beautiful lake in the Italian alps. This, however, is just a puddle of water with the actual lake hidden. I like the difference in perspective between how it actually looked to how the camera captured it only a […]
