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A very MAGIC evening

Blogs > opisska
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opisska
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Poland8852 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-07-23 11:28:47
July 23 2016 11:20 GMT
#1
So I went down 2000 meters back to the sea level to buy a new laptop and that means I am now back with more reports from La Palma. Yesterday, we had arranged with the people from MAGIC to meet with them in the evening join them in their observation session. However the arrangements were not very concrete and our contact has forgotten to turn on sounds on his phone and we couldn't reach him for three hours. When it finally got dark and our patience run out, we went out to seek him in the data taking house, but we couldn't get in - thus we wandered around until someone walked past and we could finally make contact. In the meanwhile, some (hopefully) pretty pictures were made.

[image loading]

MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Telescope, moreorless) is (as far as I know) the second largest imaging gamma-ray telescope in the world. These things work by observing the Cherenkov light created in the atmosphere by the particle showers that happen when a very high energy photon (far harder than your common X-ray) hits an atom of the air - the idea is very similar to our own Auger project, you just use the huge volume of atmosphere above you to make you effective detector much bigger.

[image loading]

The MAGIC itself isn't exactly small either, though - they have two telescopes, each is 17 meters across, larger than any astronomical telescope in existence (incidentally, the largest such telescope is GTC, located in the dome on the horizon in the last picture of the post). The price to pay is that they are not capable of traditional imaging, the resolution of the optics is worse than your binoculars ... but for the gamma showers it's enough. It's the size that matters, because the Cherenkov light is extremely faint and you need to collect from a large area to see anything.

[image loading]

But this situation, when gamma telescopes are larger than astronomical ones will not hold for long - a 40-meter telescope is now being built in Chile. To help it achieve best results, a system of adaptive optics is being developed, including a 20-watt sodium laser which creates artificial stars via excitation of a sodium layer high in the atmosphere. This laser is now being tested here, alongside the 4-meter William Herschel Telescope (the white dome at the base of the beam). I didn't even notice in the field, but in the same picture, you can see a much fainter green beam parallel to the yellow one - that's the MAGIC lidar, a laser system for monitoring atmospheric transparency. The next picture shows it better.

[image loading]

As the Moon is near full, the dark time between the sunset and the moonrise was only an hour yesterday. When the Moon comes out, the landscape changes dramatically and suddenly, you see things like if it were daylight. It's a nuisance for the telescopes, but even MAGIC can operate under moonlight thanks to having a special filter to suppress the moonlight while letting most of the Cherenkov light through. Even despite best efforts, the Moon runs are of lower quality - but if you have a pair of 17-meter telescopes, you want to squeeze them as far as you can.

[image loading]

Our trip here to establish a location for our own atmospheric-monitoring telescope has been a moderate success. We confirmed that our building technology works in the soil here and found a very suitable location, but there are still many permits to get and a lot of administrative issues. But it seems likely that we are coming back soon, this time with an actual telescope to build.


*****
"Jeez, that's far from ideal." - Serral, the king of mild trashtalk
TL+ Member
Kleinmuuhg
Profile Blog Joined September 2010
Vanuatu4091 Posts
July 23 2016 12:11 GMT
#2
wow good stuff, great pictures!
This is our town, scrub
Silvana
Profile Blog Joined September 2013
3713 Posts
July 23 2016 15:45 GMT
#3
very interesting! (And you said your job is boring?!?!)

Thanks for taking the time to share this
Starlightsun
Profile Blog Joined June 2016
United States1405 Posts
July 23 2016 17:09 GMT
#4
Wow, amazing pictures.
Teoita
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
Italy12246 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-07-23 22:05:36
July 23 2016 21:59 GMT
#5
Wow a room mate of mine actually just did a shift of observations at Magic (she took that awesome pic of the telescopes that was posted recently on Magic's facebook). Did you happen to meet an italian girl called Chiara?

Also, technically rmany adio telescopes are way larger, and so is VLT if you count all 4 stations, and HESS' main telescope
ModeratorProtoss all-ins are like a wok. You can throw whatever you want in there and it will turn out alright.
opisska
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Poland8852 Posts
July 24 2016 09:28 GMT
#6
On July 24 2016 06:59 Teoita wrote:
Wow a room mate of mine actually just did a shift of observations at Magic (she took that awesome pic of the telescopes that was posted recently on Magic's facebook). Did you happen to meet an italian girl called Chiara?

Also, technically rmany adio telescopes are way larger, and so is VLT if you count all 4 stations, and HESS' main telescope


Haha, that's a good coincidence. We didn't meet her - maybe she was in the crowd of people doing stuff there when we were discussing our work; during the shift we were at, there was only one girl and I think she was Spanish. It was just a change of shift (our friend was in the one that started that evening), so it makes sense.

HESS is an IACT, the same as MAGIC, that's why I call MAGIC the second largest IACT ... so HESS doesn't disprove the statement that IACT's are nowadays bigger than "normal" astronomical telescopes, but the radio point is true, one always has to say "optical" do be precisely correct
"Jeez, that's far from ideal." - Serral, the king of mild trashtalk
TL+ Member
opisska
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Poland8852 Posts
July 24 2016 09:31 GMT
#7
On July 24 2016 00:45 Silvana wrote:
very interesting! (And you said your job is boring?!?!)

Thanks for taking the time to share this


Well, sometimes it is pretty boring - and sometimes you get to travel to La Palma Yesterday we were lying on a black rocky beach and contemplating how heavy of a job we have and how much we sacrifice ouserlves in the name of science

Next week I am going to have to sit in my office and deal with several pages of referee comments to my article, not fun at all ... if I get the time to watch SC2, expect some crystal salt in LRs
"Jeez, that's far from ideal." - Serral, the king of mild trashtalk
TL+ Member
EatThePath
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
United States3943 Posts
July 26 2016 21:12 GMT
#8
Very cool photos
Comprehensive strategic intention: DNE
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