During December of 2014 the National Central University, Taiwan, invited me to visit them and give a scientific talk to their astronomy department. While there I had a chance to visit their Lulin Observatory, one of the leading Asian observatories, with several large 1.0-meter class telescopes and a new 2.0 meter telescope in the works. The Lulin Observatory is near a national park near Jade Mountain – a summit taller than Mount Fuji! Within the Observatory are a number of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars working on projects related to solar system research and collaborations with Caltech’s Palomar Transient Factory. In the coming years the NCU and Lulin Observatory may be hosting student researchers from Yale_NUS College and from Pomona College, as part of a summer undergraduate research internship being designed during 2014-2015. These photos are from the summit of the observatory and show the telescopes, our friendly crew that hosted me during the overnight visit, and some of the instruments. In the coming years Lulin and NCU will be major partners with Caltech in the new ZTF project, and have been developing an amazing new instrument known as the SED-machine.
Visit to NCU, Taiwan
As part of my astronomy research, I am visiting NCU Taiwan, where Wing Ip has invited me to visit their Lulin Observatory and to give a talk on Friday. NCU is the former Nanjing University from mainland China, which was relocated to Taiwan after 1947. It is one of the leading research universities of Taiwan, and is a partner in the Caltech ZTF project, and one of the global observatories that our ZTF team is working with for following up sources discovered at Palomar.
Global Observatory Conference in Singapore – Jan. 8-9, 2015
We are having a conference in Singapore, gathering astronomers from Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Philippines, India and California, to discuss new modes of observing that make use of coordinated global networks of telescopes.
Our web site for the meeting is at http://gonsso.commons.yale-nus.edu.sg/ – below is a map showing the observatories that are participating in the meeting.
Welcome to my “media platform!”
This is my experiment to bring the many different projects I am working on – liberal arts in Asia, astrophysics of quasars, time-domain astronomy, STEM education, archaeoastronomy, and book writing – all in one place! Some call this a “media platform” and so for now that is what I am calling it. I hope you enjoy the materials, links and resources here!
Bryan Penprase
Welcome to our new ZTF Summer Undergraduate Astronomy Institute Page!
Welcome to our ZTF Summer Undergraduate Astronomy Institute Web site! Eric Bellm, the Caltech Project Scientist for ZTF and Bryan Penprase from Pomona College and Co-I on the ZTF project, have been working together on a program for astrophysics undergraduates working both at Caltech and at Pomona College this summer. The program is known as the “Summer Undergraduate Astronomy Institute” and is intended to help students learn about the science and technology surrounding their summer research projects, and to learn more about ZTF – the Zwicky Transient Factory. ZTF promises to be the premier instrument for discovering supernovae, variable stars and new asteroids, and this Institute will give you a great overview of techniques in time-domain astrophysics, observational astronomy and instrument development.
The institute is scheduled for four days – June 24-27 and includes two days at Caltech, and two days at Pomona College, along with an additional day at Palomar Observatory (with an evening at the 200″) on July 19. You can find more information on the Program, Participants, and some useful resources for Python and ZTF at this site!