Sunday, September 13, 2015

collecting SAMI galaxies

I've been up at Siding Spring Observatory visiting this beauty this week.

The dome of the 4-metre Anglo-Australian Telescope
I enjoy walking around the dome's catwalk to see the views in all directions.

Hello from the catwalk!
 The first night provided a lovely (cloudy) sunset.


But then the skies cleared BEAUTIFULLY for most of the observing run and the Milky Way glowed brilliantly across the early evening sky.


We have been using the SAMI instrument during this run to observe over 100 galaxies so far!

Perched at Prime Focus with SAMI
Kristin was the telescope operator for the beginning of the run. Here she is with the original control panel that was installed 40 years ago!  while it still looks roughly the same - systems and displays have been upgraded over the years :)


we had some time for enjoying the clear night skies while exposing with the big telescope

The Magellanic Clouds and the AAT dome. (Credit: Jesse van de Sande)

Milky Way (Credit: Angel Lopez-Sanchez)
And we may have started to write a few songs for "SAMI - then Musical"  ;)