Visita de SRAP al Observatorio de Siding Spring


El fin de semana del sábado 21 al domingo 22 de abril, la SRAP organizó una visita especial al Observatorio de Siding Spring (Coonabarabran, NSW), que fue coordinada por nuestro socio, el astrofísico Ángel López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Observatory / Macquarie University). Los 32 participantes de SRAP no sólo vieron las instalaciones telescópicas (los telescopios ópticos más grandes de Australia) sino que se pudieron quedar a pernoctar en la nueva residencia (ANU Lodge) del observatorio (la primera vez que se hacía algo así) y realizaron observaciones astronómicas con telescopios de aficionado e incluso astrofotografía. Los socios de SRAP también vieron cómo los astrofísicos profesionales observan el cielo en directo. Todo junto a una barbacoa especial para cenar y un ambiente excelente. Todos disfrutamos mucho de la visita, que esperamos repetir el año que viene.

Algunas fotos de la visita:

Crédito de todas las fotos: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (AAO/MQU).

Esta foto de la Luna es el resultado de combinar las imágenes individuales que tomaron varios de los participantes en una única imagen final de alta calidad:


Angel.Lopez-Sanchez

Acerca de Angel.Lopez-Sanchez

Dr Ángel R. López-Sánchez is an astrophysicist and science communicator working at the Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO) and the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the Macquarie University (MQ) in Sydney (NSW, Australia). His research is focused in the analysis of star formation phenomena in galaxies of the Local Universe, especially in dwarf starbursts and spiral galaxies, using multi-wavelength (UV, optical, IR, radio) data. He presented his PhD Thesis at University of La Laguna and the Instituto Astrofisica de Canarias (Spain) in 2006. In 2007 he joined CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science (Sydney) with a postdoctoral position. He then joined the AAO (formerly the Australian Astronomical Observatory) and MQ in 2011. In July 2018 he was appointed as Senior Lecturer at AAO-MQ. He has been providing instrument and observing support at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT, Siding Spring Observatory, NSW) since 2011, being the instrument scientist of several instruments: the multi-fiber spectrograph 2dF+AAOmega and the near-infrared imager and spectrograph IRIS2. He also has large experience with integral-field spectroscopy (IFS), being a very active member of the SAMI collaboration at the AAT and part of the HECTOR Science Team. He currently is the Instrument Scientist of KOALA+AAOmega at the AAT, and leads the international astronomy survey "HI KOALA IFS Dwarf and irregular galaxy Survey" (Hi-KIDS), that is getting unique, high-quality IFS data of a sample of 100 nearby dwarf and irregular galaxies for which 21cm H I interferometric data is available He has large experience teaching undergraduate and PhD students and giving lectures and classes about Astronomy. Dr. López-Sánchez is passionate science communicator who continuously gives talks and public lectures, writes popular science articles and organizes science communication events and stargazing activities. He is very active in social media, his Twitter feed is @El_Lobo_Rayado.