Today, I'm going to talk mainly about the entire week of science I experienced last June at the Southern Cross Conference in the Hunter Valley - something I should have done a while ago. The title of the conference was Multi-Wavelength Surveys: A vintage decade, and I thought this was a really good idea for a conference. Obviously, I'm completely biased, as all my data and work comes from and revolves around multi-wavelength surveys. Also, as a mere Ph.D student, I doubt my insights into the talks and conclusions at this conference are the best, but maybe I got some stuff out of it that the old fogeys missed.
The programme for the conference was nicely laid out, with introductory talks from Matt Colless and Nobel Laureate, Brian Schmidt. Matt's opening on the importance of surveys was, I thought, excellent because it was thought-provoking whilst simultaneously witty. It drew quite a few laughs and essentially set the entire tone of the week. Brian's talk on skymapper was on a similarly high pedestal, and he got a few giggles going, particularly when discussing acronyms and whether they were farcical or real.
These both paved the way for the rest of the talks - some of them invited, 25 minute talks and the others were applied for, 15 minute talks. We heard about a whole range of surveys and instruments: some are well known to me, at least by name, such as WISE, Planck and Hermes. Others were less well known and I was simply astounded by the number of surveys going on out there. It seems that statistically represented samples of whatever are the currently sexy procedure within observational astronomy.
However, watching a bunch of talks wasn't the highlight of the conference. This was the first proper conference that I was presenting a talk at, which was quite an exciting occasion. I recorded my talk on my laptop as I was giving it, and was suitably impressed with my lack of stuttering + time-keeping skills during my session. Additionally, it was clearly the point when my name was sent out there - for the next day I was inundated with people introducing themselves to discuss/ask/comment on my talk.
On top of all this, the day of my talk was also the day of the transit of Venus. Now, this was only the second and last time in my lifetime that I would have a chance to watch this, and I've very grateful that we were given the opportunity, both by the conference organisers and the weather, to observe this firsthand. All the astronomers were out there as soon as clouds had cleared, and some amazing piccies were taken. It was an incredibly beautiful sight, as was the rainbow gracing the sky that morning.
Quite a lot else went on at this conference. I made a great group of friends (I hope) who I went for dinner with every night, and the pub as well. The conference dinner was splendid, with great food and an even greater open bar. We were also taken wine-tasting by the conference organisers, which was a splendid event (thanks, Michelle Cluver, for organising this. Top notch!!!!). Altogether, I would say the conference was a great success for all involved.
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| Nice to have been in a proper conference room |
The programme for the conference was nicely laid out, with introductory talks from Matt Colless and Nobel Laureate, Brian Schmidt. Matt's opening on the importance of surveys was, I thought, excellent because it was thought-provoking whilst simultaneously witty. It drew quite a few laughs and essentially set the entire tone of the week. Brian's talk on skymapper was on a similarly high pedestal, and he got a few giggles going, particularly when discussing acronyms and whether they were farcical or real.
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| David Malin's talk on photography |
However, watching a bunch of talks wasn't the highlight of the conference. This was the first proper conference that I was presenting a talk at, which was quite an exciting occasion. I recorded my talk on my laptop as I was giving it, and was suitably impressed with my lack of stuttering + time-keeping skills during my session. Additionally, it was clearly the point when my name was sent out there - for the next day I was inundated with people introducing themselves to discuss/ask/comment on my talk.
On top of all this, the day of my talk was also the day of the transit of Venus. Now, this was only the second and last time in my lifetime that I would have a chance to watch this, and I've very grateful that we were given the opportunity, both by the conference organisers and the weather, to observe this firsthand. All the astronomers were out there as soon as clouds had cleared, and some amazing piccies were taken. It was an incredibly beautiful sight, as was the rainbow gracing the sky that morning.
 |
| Image taken by pointing my camera down a telescope eyepiece |
Quite a lot else went on at this conference. I made a great group of friends (I hope) who I went for dinner with every night, and the pub as well. The conference dinner was splendid, with great food and an even greater open bar. We were also taken wine-tasting by the conference organisers, which was a splendid event (thanks, Michelle Cluver, for organising this. Top notch!!!!). Altogether, I would say the conference was a great success for all involved.
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