The Control Room

Controlling a telescope is a lot more different than it used to be in the old days of looking through a peep hole. Even amateur astronomers are getting pretty advanced and connecting cameras to their smaller telescopes.

As everything in the modern world, even professional astronomy, everything is operated by a computer in some way or another. Below is a picture of the NOB - New Observation Building.


You can still go and see the semi-old observation rooms. The following picture is the original control room for the 2.2m telescope, but is no longer operational here.


This building contains all the terminals for the telescopes - 2.2m, NTT and 3.6m and usually referred to as the TCS - Telescope Control System. Each instrument then has its' own terminal also, like GROND (2.2.m Telescope Control Computers also):


This terminal lets you see the status of the instrument, run exposures (just like a normal camera) on a target (e.g. star). It also can let you change the position of the telescope to where you want to point, so that you don't have to use two separate terminals.


So for each terminal there is one TIO - Telescope Instrument Operator, who controls the telescope and the instruments. For GROND it is different and GROND can only be used by members of the GROND team. I'll write about GROND another day when I have more time.

3.6m Telescope Control Computers:


NTT Control Computers:


The problem with observing is that you're spending your time in front of a computer for most of the night, that during the day it's nice to do other things. Fortunately when they built the complex at La Silla they took this into account and set up a few places for people to keep their sanity. I'm quite surprised there hasn't been anyone going crazy on the mountain yet, I guess there's still time for me.

Firstly, to make sure you keep awake during the night, there are several kitchen areas with coffee machines (which seem to be from the German pre-historic ages - unfortunately they also taste that way too), endless supply for tea, biscuits and other food;


a pool room, which is usually used when there is bad weather during the night and you're just waiting;

a cinema, with a large collection of movies in the library;

and also a gym court;



gym room;
and dojo (otherwise you would get fat and crazy).



All in all, it is a nice place, and slightly strange having a cinema in the middle of no where. Though I can assure you, if you stay longer than 3 weeks, it can become a little bit isolated and boredom sets in very easily. It's also especially strange as this was originally built for the 100 or so staff members that originally came here. However, in the past 10 years they have been transferred to Paranal after the VLT was built and so it can feel like a ghost town, especially when you're the only one in the gymnasium.

The telescopes

So, once you're on the mountain, you could say there are several picks as to which telescope you use. However, that's not exactly the case. First it still has to be operational - which isn't the case for all the telescopes in La Silla and you have to have been awarded by time to use it by ESO or organisation that runs it. (Warning - if you find telescopes boring then don't read the rest).

The first to mention is the one in my previous post that you can see on top of a hill (though this is 2500+m). This is called the 3.6 telescope and is host to the HARPS instrument, which is a relative velocity spectrograph. Essentially it looks for planets and is maintained by ESO:




The next to mention, and far more important (as I actually use it) is the 2.2m telescope. This is host to 3 instruments: GROND (Gamma-ray Burst Optical Near-Infa-Red Detector), WFI (Wide Field Imager), FEROS (some type of spectrometer).



Finally, is the NTT (New Technology Telescope). This is a specially designed telescope where the entire building can move both rotationally and azimuthally - though I forget it's importance in comparisons to the other, though I really shouldn't. This is home to a spectrometer and two imagers also (EMMI, SUSI2 & SOFI).


The 3 telescopes mentioned above are maintained by ESO, the only exception is that GROND is not maintained by ESO, but by the MPE. There are also several more telescopes that are at La Silla, but are not ESO or are no longer used or are some sort of instrumental device. I will quickly mention these:

DIMM (Differential Imaging Motion Monitor....) - This collects information about the local environment, e.g. seeing, airmass and other useful things for observers.

(The picture is the little box thing infront of the NTT photograph)

REM - This is a robotic telescope (completely unmanned) owned by the Belgians (box thing between the two big telescopes)


EULER - This is a telescope owned and maintained by the Swiss. They eat lots of fondoo and drink lots of wine here - I'm unsure if they do any work or just enjoy the location, as they have the best view. You can sometimes see Alpackas (llama things) and verschachas (chilean rabbit/hare thingies). This has (as far as I know) an instrument called COROLI that looks for planets.



(Swiss is on the right where there is a car parked)

SEST - This is a microwave telescope owned by the Swedish. At one point they accidentally broke the telescope pointing it upwards. They couldn't fix it before the sun got to Noon and the primary mirror caused the detector to melt onto the mirror. This, I guess, took a while to fix (it's the antenna thing on the far right).


Microwave tower - this is how the internet is transfered into the Atacama desert. Entel is the only company that does it and so I hear they charge a ridiculous amount of money.


Danish & Others - I forget which is which, but the following are no longer used (apart from 1.5m - I think - Danish telescope which is used 1/2 of the year).



All in all there a lot, but the following picture sums up the most notable (excluding the swiss telescope):

Left to right: 2.2, Danish, NTT, 3.6

Arriving at the mountain

With my PhD position at the Max Planck Institute in Garching, Germany, it is part of my contract that I have to go and work at a telescope in Chile. The first time I didn't take a camera with me, which, as you can expect, turned out to be a bad idea. Fortunately my parents had bought me a camera at Christmas for my second trip.

The trip is usually from Munich to Madrid. You then change planes at Madrid (this is not the easiest/shortest of tasks) and go directly to Santiago. From Santiago you then change again and fly to La Serena. It's not over yet.... From La Serena you take a taxi to the La Silla Observatory. So, first flight 3 hours, second flight 14 hours, third flight 40 minutes, taxi drive 2 and a half hours. So it can take around 2 days to arrive (with the airport changes, baggage etc).

However, when you arrive at the La Silla Observatory the view alone is worth it. Even from the reception, both the Atacama desert and all the telescopes that are located here are easily seen:





The strange thing when you first come here is that your living quarters are actually hotel rooms. They are maintained and cleaned every day and is even called the La Silla Hotel. It's got everything you need - a bed and a bathroom - the rest of the time you'll be busy observing or eating in the cafeteria.




Also I shouldn't forget to boast about the view from the room...





So that's the first post I had planned. I've got lots more pictures, but I don't think it's worth putting them up without an explanation. The view hasn't got old yet, and I won't stop boasting :))).

You could say this is where it begins. This is my graduation of my Masters of Physics degree (July 2010), with my supervisor (Prof. Boris Gaensicke) and co-worker (Robert Farmer) at the time. I did my degree at Warwick University in Coventry UK and had by this time accepted a PhD at the Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics in Munich, Germany. I've been meaning to start a blog for a while, so that I could keep track of how my life/career progresses.
This is mainly for my parents, as due to lots of work I can be fairly vague and short about what I've been doing when I talk to them. It'll also be useful for me to look back on when I become old and wrinkly and wish to reminisce about the good old days.