Siding Spring Observatory
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue57 1–30 November 2024
After an eventful October that included Starfest, the AAT 50th Anniversary Symposium (see the photo) and the recoating of the 2.3m mirror, I would have thought that things would quiet down a bit in November. Tell ’im ’e’s dreamin’.
Faults at the AAT with the blue camera of the AAOmega, the ADC of 2dF, the windscreen and the dome shutter and the faults at the 2.3m and SkyMapper have kept staff at SSO extremely busy. There was also the intervention on Veloce, ably carried out by Greg Jolly and Brian Taylor. A big thank you from the staff of SSO to both Greg and Brian for coming up to assist SSO again on short notice.
New staff - Welcome Wei Jeat Hon (Jack) and Evgeny Klintukh.
It is with great pleasure that I welcome Wei Jeat Hon (Jack) to SSO. Jack has joined the operations team at SSO and started on November 11. Jack just completed his PhD in astrophysics at the University of Melbourne. He was studying black holes that are evolving too fast. Literally, as before the ANU 2.3-meter telescope became fully automated, he would spend nights observing such black holes. He writes, “While it is a bummer that the telescope takes care of the fun stuff now, I understand that it is for the greater good to eliminate human errors. Especially considering I was responsible for ruining a whole night of data collection for the observatory by leaving the dome lights on!” We wish Jack all the best in his work at SSO. Don’t worry Jack, you will soon get to observe quite a bit with the AAT.
In the last edition of Lunations, we welcomed Evgeny Klintukh to SSO. Evgeny started with us on October 21. Evgeny is an electronics engineer from Tasmania who has worked in fields related to electronics and physics. He has designed digital and analog communication systems, repaired televisions and X-ray machines, searched for gold at the bottom of the sea and grew wheat in electromagnetic fields.
Chris Lidman, on behalf of the staff at SSO, wishing everyone a successful end to 2024 and all the best for 2025.
Image: Attendees of the AAT 50th Anniversary Symposium (photo credit: Blake Estes).
