VLBI: Radio telescopy unblindfolded

Palomar · 2004-10-10 11:44:13

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0410/09evlbi/]Click

*This is fantastic! Cooperation at its best.

Will use a supergiant in Aquila (dubbed IRC+10420) in the first demonstration.

***
In conventional interferometry, far from the traditional image of an astronomer peering through an eyepiece, radio astronomers have to wait weeks or even months to see the results of their work as data tapes are shipped around the world to be combined at a central processing facility.

Prof Phil Diamond, of Jodrell Bank Observatory explains "Previously, we've been working in the dark, collecting data that we can't see in its entirety until painfully long weeks later. Now using e-VLBI, we have removed that blindfold; we can process the observations taken at a number of locations around the world at once, in real time. In future, this technique will allow us to take much better images than previously possible, revealing in much greater detail the Universe around us."
***

Just keeps getting better. I hope IRC+10420 blows tomorrow, -laugh-

--Cindy

P.S.: Couldn't find this article as having been previously posted.

Shaun Barrett · 2004-10-10 17:30:17

I'm surprised it's taken them this long to organise e-VBLI. After all, the internet is hardly a new phenomenon, even to mildly technophobic computer illiterates like me!

Still, better late than never. And maybe just in the nick of time if that supernova blows tomorrow.

Palomar · 2004-10-10 21:31:34

I'm surprised it's taken them this long to organise e-VBLI. After all, the internet is hardly a new phenomenon, even to mildly technophobic computer illiterates like me!
Still, better late than never. And maybe just in the nick of time if that supernova blows tomorrow.

*Hi Shaun. Danged bureaucratic red tape, I suppose, what with multiple agencies and nations involved.

When I think back to astronomy in the 1970s, that seemed like The Stone Age. :laugh: We had the big ground telescopes of course -- Kitt Peak, Palomar, etc. -- Pioneer, the Vikings, Voyagers (launched). ::shakes head:: I don't remember much about radio telescopy back then; I was always more interested in optical telescopy (that is changing; it's about "neck-and-neck" with me now!).

Seeing this article is doubly wonderful; how rapidly information is flowing nowadays. Not sure I should drop the word "exponential," but it definitely comes to mind.

I remember, around age 12, scouring my hometown's tiny library for any new astronomy books. There weren't many. I already had been subscribing to "Sky & Telescope" for a few years. Funny, an article in S & T said, at that time, that astronomy books published "today" could likely be out of date in a few years' time. I wonder if today that'd be a few months' time...it seems likely.

It was info famine back then. Sure, incoming info was exciting and welcomed (always!), but what a veritable feast we enjoy today. Can't hardly keep up with all the news streaming in daily -- it's marvelous. I look back at the 1970s with nostalgia of course, and what will the next 25 years bring?

Sorry for the digression, -laugh-. VLBI (or e-VLBI) is more icing on the cake. :up:

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2004-10-11 08:03:17

Yes, indeed. The pace of change is extraordinary these days.
Easily fast enough to cause confusion in some people's minds between 'e-VBLI' and the better known 'e-VLBI'!! (Sorry.)

Interestingly enough, at the age you mention - about 11 or 12 - I was scouring the local library in south London looking for science fiction novels. I found a series of fictional works by someone called Hugh Walters, with titles like 'Mission to Mercury', 'Destination Mars', and 'Journey to Jupiter'.
Even then, the seeds had somehow been sown!

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#1 2004-10-10 11:44:13

Re: VLBI: Radio telescopy unblindfolded

#2 2004-10-10 17:30:17

Re: VLBI: Radio telescopy unblindfolded

#3 2004-10-10 21:31:34

Re: VLBI: Radio telescopy unblindfolded

#4 2004-10-11 08:03:17

Re: VLBI: Radio telescopy unblindfolded

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