Want to build cool stuff for telescopes? August 11, 2010
Posted by sarah in: astronomy, me . 2commentsFor over three years now I’ve been working here in Leiden’s instrumentation group. My time here in Leiden is coming to an end – I’m sad to leave but such is the life of a postdoc, and I’m excited about new things ahead (more about that later). I’ve written here about my own work on a few occasions, here’s a few examples:
Future facilities: Coming quite close now actually
If my work sounds like fun to you, and you have a PhD and experience in working on instrumentation projects, why don’t you apply to join the group?
I’ve enjoyed my time in Leiden immensely, both from a personal and professional perspective. The Observatory sets a high standard to its staff and students, but is very open and inclusive with a great “can-do” attitude. So if you’re passionate about your science, it’s great place to push the limits of your skills and creativity. If you’re interested, check out the ad on the AAS register and apply!
Atheism August 5, 2010
Posted by sarah in: random . Add a commentLove xkcd!
Hubble Gotchu introduces JWST August 3, 2010
Posted by sarah in: astronomy, space . 1 comment so farThe James Webb Space Telescope featured in last night’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon!
Personal note August 2, 2010
Posted by sarah in: me . Add a comment
As many of you know, I had a bit of an accident a couple of months back during and ended up with a limb out of action and a pair of crutches. Unexpected as these things are, things were pretty chaotic for a while. But somehow I managed to eat, sleep, get to work most days, even enjoy a few foreign trips, and generally not go insane. I attended several interesting and enjoyable conferences, hobbled around Venice on crutches, fell over in Venice on crutches, and had a super holiday exploring California.
I don’t usually get personal on here, but I thought a quick note of thanks was in order for everyone who helped me out these past months, kept me well fed, hydrated, mobile and reasonably sane – old friends, new friends, colleagues, acquaintances, some really entertaining taxi drivers, weirdos in Texas, and of course family and extra-special friend. I hope you never need me to return the favour, but if you do ever find yourself face down on a basketball court, give me a call. Big thanks to all of you.
Image: C. Odman
Massive star formation not so different after all? August 2, 2010
Posted by sarah in: new astronomy . 6comments
Reconstructed image from near-IR interferometric observations of IRAS 13481-6124 using VLTI/AMBER
In my previous post on the Zooniverse Project IX I’m involved in, I talked about the importance of star formation in the Universe and some of the difficulties we face in studying it. Some big unanswered question particularly remain in our understanding of how massive stars form. Fittingly, the latest edition of Nature has a paper on a nice result in the study of massive star formation: a detection by direct imaging of an accretion disk around a massive young star.
