PULSE@Parkes

Hello, people, and welcome to the second post of AB: A Blog! Today was a day of highs and lows, and, because I'm not in the mood for any original thought, I'm going to use a tired quote: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. (I was really struggling there not to replace worst with blurst.) Allow me to start with the worst of times, because that was how the morning started.

Nature continued her goal this morning to make sure luck doesn't go my way today (and it's not even Friday the 13th yet). Wake up at 6:00, to get to school at 7:30 am, which was when the excursion started. Or so I thought. I'll give you the compressed version. On Monday, there is a meeting about the excursion. Partway through it, I get called over the intercom to the office. I find out it's a false alarm, and go back. Today: I get to school. Nobody is there. The note for the excursion said be there by 7:30. What I found out about half an hour later is that in the meeting, when I was gone, Mr Pitt said: be there 15 minutes before the bell. When I found that out, I felt like a massive idiot. Stupidity turned to frustration. Frustration turned to anger. I felt like I could punch somebody out. As I said this morning, this is the sort of bad luck they burnt witches over. And that was just up to 9 am. Luckily, it got a whole lot better from there...

The bus ride there was subdued. There was chatter, so I got out Les Miserables and read. (On a side note, that book goes on for 40 pages about the battle of Waterloo. They thought it was relevant because a minor character was briefly involved. Maybe it's a major plot point, I haven't got that far yet.) When we got there, it was about 10:15. We were greeted by Rob Hollows, who took us for a brief tour, and we got straight into it. First, our group did some calculations on some software using measurements previously taken about the pulsars (basically, how far away they are.). Next, we watched some groups get the data virtually in real time from the telescope (we remotely controlled it.) Then, it was our turn: we had a look at two pulsars, or rather, their radio beams (after the computer ended up crashing. Twice). One, which had never been seen 'on' before, which we saw on, and one which was part of a binary system. It was amazing. Next was the bus ride to Hurlstone. Several phrases come to mind: indescribable, amazing, 'had to be there,' funny. It was great. We went to Hungry Jack's, and made very good jokes, one which went something like this: (you have to know that there, they said pulsar astronomers were the weirdest astronomers, and and Mr. Pitt just went to McDonalds.)

"Imagine if Mr. Pitt somehow got breath-tested."
"And it turned out positive!"
"Yeah, he's like: *acts drunk*!"
"He hasn't had beer, that's what he's like when he drinks Coke!"
"No, *imitates policeman*: Sir, it came up negative. Are you a pulsar astronomer?"

At which point, we said we couldn't say anymore, as that was not going to be topped. Near the end, we decided that the 'epic' bus trip needed a name. The Name: "Magic School Bus: Epic Trip." Comedy Gold.

So, yeah. Longwinded, I suppose, but it was a great day. Photos to come soon (maybe), but for now, see this link to see what the PULSE@Parkes project is all about. Hopefully, there are pictures there of me.

Listen to the radio (waves),
AB