What's New - June 1999 What's New - June 1999
We're currently in the midst of the 1999 PLANET observing season and things are going reasonably well. Joining us for a few weeks of observing was Andy Stephens from Ohio State University. Andy was the first of two visitors from OSU who will be assisting with observing this year.
On the X-ray astronomy front, Barry Giles continues with his observations of X-ray transients this month, with some coordinated optical and X-ray observations of 4U 1636-53. Barry and myself were fortunate enough to attend the American Astronomical Society's High-Energy Astrophysics Division meeting in April this year, where we presented work on GX 1+4 and 4U 1636-53. This work has seen two new papers submitted during May, with another to come. I'm currently at SSO doing some spectroscopic observations of GX 1+4.
The new camera has been successfully installed and is now the regular instrument for all photometric observations at Mt. Canopus. Control is via a Sun IPX workstation running Mount Stromlo's Cicada sofware. This machine is soon to be upgraded, as soon as it's replacement can actually make it to the university (by all reports it's been a slow, slow journey).
Improvements to the telescope infrastructure continue. Dome position control is now fully automatic. The new weather station allows continuous monitoring of weather conditions, and includes an alarm to wake sleeping observers in case the cloud clears (which it has been known to do, according to reliable witnesses). The TTC unit has been replaced with a brand-new one thanks to Keith. The observer's notes detail the procedural changes.