Topic: Alma antennas collect first data

[Simon]

A team working on the Alma observatory in Chile have made their first measurements from the telescope's site, located 5,000m up in the Andes.

Astronomers and engineers took their first "interferometric" measurements of radio signals — so-called "fringes" — of an astronomical source.  This is an important technical step for the Alma project.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8364461.stm

[Clive]

If you look very closely, you can see Sam at position 2 o'clock from the yellow box.  Aricebo was a smokescreen!   

[Simon]

 

[sam]

If you look very closely, you can see Sam at position 2 o'clock from the yellow box.  Aricebo was a smokescreen!   

hahaha... though funily enough (wasn't allowed to mention any results) but two of the people at Calgary work on the software for that...

[Clive]

It's a truly magnificent project which seems to have taken forever to be commisioned!  I'm sure it will have been well worth the wait!

[sam]

It's a truly magnificent project which seems to have taken forever to be commisioned!  I'm sure it will have been well worth the wait!

hmmm... not so sure  though the software developed for it is going to have massive implications to the wider radio astronomy community - shame we keep finding bugs in it.