So what?

We don't care about publication rates. We want our dinner. Now. Otherwise your phone book isn't going anywhere.

UKIRT sets yet another publication record

From "JCMT and UKIRT Break Publication Records Again in 2012". And the UK STFC still plan to withdraw funding later this year. No wonder so many other groups are interested in ownership of UKIRT.

Lowering the flag for the last time

Well, today is an end of an era. The decision was made some time ago, but the UK STFC have ended their participation in the Gemini Observatory today. Not only does this make the UK look bad - who wants to work with a country that's pulling out of so many science projects they've invested in for so many years? - it's created a big problem for Gemini as the UK's financial contribution was a significant part of Gemini's income and operating costs. As you know, the UK will also withdraw support and funding for UKIRT (Gemini's next door neighbour and where I work) at the end of September 2013 and then the JCMT in late 2014. 

Anyway, I was kindly invited to attend the Union Jack flag lowering ceremony this afternoon at Gemini's Hilo-based headquarters as the JAC's representative. Some of the snapshots I took are below.

All seven flags of the Gemini partner countries fly proudly outside the Gemini Hilo Headquarters at 3pm today.

Gemini North Headquarters.

The Union Jack starts to be lowered by Gemini staff members Gabriela and Claire.

Folding the flag - it will be sent back to the STFC in the UK.

Careful! Don't let the flag touch the ground!

The flag is handed to Markus Kissler-Patig, Gemini Director.

I hope the UK government and STFC are proud of this picture.

I was also handed a second Union Jack to give to my own boss when he returns from a trip. No photos of that I'm afraid, but although it was quite a sad occasion people were smiling (perhaps because they now have cut off all ties with the UK STFC?) and it was nice to catch up with many old friends, several of whom worked for UKIRT in the past!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Merry Christmas

2012 has not been my favourite year, the last few weeks up until October were up there with the worst of my life. But then Pam and I visited the UK and my spirits were lifted again. She had only spent a couple of days there 30 years ago and so I took her on a tour of all the places in the UK that meant something to me. Where I grew up, where my family vacationed when I was a kid, where I went to college and where I spent the last couple of years before moving to Hawaii.

It was the best trip of my life. I think Pam enjoyed it as well.

Then it was back to work and dealing with the possible closure of UKIRT, running operations, etc. And then the utterly horrible, stomach-churning, distressing news from Newtown Connecticut. Twenty small kids shot dead along with the teachers that tried to protect them.

I have never felt so upset and I have yet to find a way to deal with the feelings I have. I love America, but how could this happen here? Not your normal shooting spree, that's terrible enough, but to shoot so many young children and their teachers?

Why? The country I moved to, one I love, with so many wonderful people, has people that can do this? Every day I meet people who want to help, have a chat in the store, joke about the weather, criticize my choice of beer or accent while giving me a high five on the way out. Wonderful people who want to stay in touch when I meet them in a distant hotel bar, offers of Thanksgiving dinners with people I've never met, people who go out of their way to help a stranded motorist at the side of the highway.

And then Newtown. 

Why?

I'm sorry I haven't been posting here much, but perhaps you might like to watch a video which I always find helpful when I feel low. I know Pam will like it, several shots of the UK countryside! The music, Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings is my favourite piece of music and the poem is wonderful and moving.


Merry Christmas everyone,

Tom

Telescope for sale, one careful owner

Announcement of opportunity
UKIRT prospectus

UKIRT discovers "impossible" binary stars

Artist's impression of the two red dwarfs orbiting each other (credit: J. Pinfield, for the RoPACS network).

Despite facing closure UKIRT continues to produce superb scientific discoveries. In this case a pair of red dwarfs with impossibly tight orbits.

`"To our complete surprise, we found several red dwarf binaries with orbital periods significantly shorter than the 5 hour cut-off found for Sun-like stars, something previously thought to be impossible", said Bas Nefs from Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, lead author of the paper. "It means that we have to rethink how these close-in binaries form and evolve."

Since stars shrink in size early in their lifetime, the fact that these very tight binaries exist means that their orbits must also have shrunk as well since their birth, otherwise the stars would have been in contact early on and have merged. However, it is not at all clear how these orbits could have shrunk by so much.'

For more, see the full RAS press release.

I'm so pathetic

I haven't taken my camera with me, so this is Dam Square photographed by someone else. I'm staying just to the right in a quirky but very nice hotel. The smell of cannabis on the street outside reminds me of my student days but I have yet to find a city quite like this. It's just brilliant - countless restaurants and bars all within walking distance and an opportunity to forget all the crap that's going on right now.

Then again I have to give a talk about how wonderful UKIRT is despite dealing with the shut-down notice we got a month or so ago from the STFC. The presentation is scheduled for Friday afternoon, the penultimate talk on a Friday evening when everyone has gone home. Wonderful. I have a really good joke to tell as well...

STFC - spending more money for less science

What would you do given the following choice?

1. You have two telescopes that between them deliver more science than any other observatory in the world. You can cut the funding for one of them but the cost of the remaining telescope increases so it costs the same as running both together. The result is less science but the amount of money spent doesn't change. Science becomes more expensive.
   
2. You have two telescopes that between them deliver more science than anyone else in the world. You can keep both telescopes running until a cut-off date sometime in the future. It costs the same as running only one of them, but the science is doubled (actually, tripled going by current publication rates).

I'm curious if anyone else comes up with the same decision as the UK STFC, which is to adopt option 1.

Devastated

From an STFC press release:

"Acting on advice and recommendations from its Science Board, Council has now agreed to:

• extend operation of JCMT to end September 2014, to allow for completion of the agreed science programme for the SCUBA-2 instrument on the JCMT;

• cease STFC support for the operation of UKIRT from end September 2013, a year after the completion of its current survey programme;

• extend operations of ING initially until March 2015, which will provide additional time for negotiations with existing partners with the goal of retaining continued access to the northern sky for UK astronomers."

The reason for ending support for UKIRT a year earlier than JCMT is unclear since there are no savings to be made here, UKIRT essentially comes for free as long as the JCMT is supported. The opportunity to take a year's worth of free data using one of the most scientifically productive telescopes on the planet is being thrown away. As are our jobs.

UKIRT: on the way to another new record

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. This will continue I'm afraid because I'm just too busy. Every so often, however, there's a bit of news that really needs to be shared and it's UKIRT's productivity this time. I still can't believe these numbers are correct but so far everything checks out. We've become a stunningly productive observatory in the last few years and as long as the JCMT is funded with its revolutionary new instrument, SCUBA-2, this stuff comes for free.

UKIRT's productivity continues to rise