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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
One year on Mt Wendelstein – 9
–part 9 of the essay One year on Mt. Wendelstein– After a long and productive night, one of my highlights is watching the sunrise in the morning which announces the end of my shift. Since there is nobody here besides the observer, I put on classical music from Bruckner and sit outside for half an […]
One year on Mt Wendelstein – 11
–part 11 of the essay One year on Mt. Wendelstein– Ever imagined how the sky on an extrasolar planet could look like? On Earth, the sky is blue mostly due to Ozone with rayleigh scattering, which is still often taught at school as an explanation, playing only second fiddle. Other gasses therefore would color the […]
One year on Mt Wendelstein – 12
–part 12 of the essay One year on Mt. Wendelstein– With autumn approaching, the stormy season has begun. Infrared is able to show the structure of the incoming rainclouds with almost no haze, making them look all the more threatening.
One year on Mt Wendelstein – 13
–part 13 of the essay One year on Mt. Wendelstein– Night shots are particularly challenging in the infrared since the amount of photons is quite low. However, trying it with a not very bright superzoom lens may be called insanity! During full moon, I took a series of ten images and stacked them. This lowered […]
