Fringes
September 30, 2009 at 12:14 pm | In Physics | Leave a CommentIt’s satisfying when things work.
Upper trace is the drive, lower trace is the interferometer output. The substrate’s moving ~500 nm, but we’ll clearly have resolution <10 nm, even with this kludgey setup.
Poisson
September 30, 2009 at 9:52 am | In Physics | Leave a CommentWhile debugging things today, I took the opportunity to demonstrate one of my favorite optical phenomena, the Poisson Spot. Send coherent plane waves of light at a ball bearing, and you’ll see a spot appear directly behind it. This can only happen if light has wave-like properties. You can do this with just a laser pointer and a ball bearing (or circular absorber of any kind), though it’s convenient to have a beam that’s somewhat larger in diameter than the bearing.
Who says you can’t shoot a laser pointer through steel?
Dawn
September 30, 2009 at 7:05 am | In Gravity, Life, Physics, Skiing | Leave a CommentSome say that 90% of success is just showing up. What does it mean if you simply never leave?
Cloudy dawn light in the counting room
Well, for one thing, it definitely means that I’m fiddling with the laser about three hours earlier than I normally would. I suspect that’s a good thing.
Sumatran quake and early snows after the bump.
Samoa
September 29, 2009 at 1:56 pm | In Gravity, Physics | Leave a CommentThere was a magnitude 8 quake in Samoa today. Earth is still ringing three hours later.
Splat. The wiggles on the left are our calibration tone.
Finerwould
September 28, 2009 at 10:52 pm | In Life, Mountains | Leave a CommentWell, a splendid weekend was forecast, and a splendid weekend came to pass. A bearded woodcutter named Walt dropped in to deliver some first-ever firewood. Stacking it was easy to bear, thanks to very friendly help. That done, we ambled off to the North Cascades for some galavanting.
Green tunnel 1, Alpine sunset-with-a-sweetie 50.
Neato.
This photo brought to you by mobile camp cleverness.
Scenic SR 20.
A wee bit of the retreating Jerry Glacier.
Strolling through alpine meadows with you….
Washington Pass by moonlight.
A nighttime ride home turned into a morning run, a trip to Boeing’s Everett extravaganza, Molly Moon consumption, inadvertent but remarkable Thai soup, relaxed conversation, and a trip to the bearport. Finished up the day with some bloginating beside a waltwood fire.
Fireside warmth is good for the sole.
Back to the lab tomorrow, prepared to rock my own interferometric socks off.
Smorgasbord
September 25, 2009 at 9:51 am | In Life | Leave a CommentFirst, the news. Warmth and 15k freezing levels for one last summer dash for bears over the weekend, then this? Perfect.
THIS MEANS AT LEAST SOME OF THE PRECIPITATION MONDAY NIGHT AND TUESDAY IN THE MOUNTAINS WILL BE SNOW...PROBABLY DOWN TO 4000 FEET OR SO. THERE IS SOME REBOUNDING AFTER THAT BUT HEIGHTS ARE UNLIKELY TO GET AS HIGH AS THEY HAVE BEEN THIS WEEK...NOT UNTIL NEXT YEAR PROBABLY.
An observation that wasn’t quite post-worthy last night: It’s an amazing privilege to have the solitary run of a fully stocked and outfitted research facility on nights and weekends. Even if I take a research position somewhere else, I may never again work in a place that’s so very conducive to great things. It’s a heck of a lab.
Nosing through the main flickr blog turned up some gems.
Well, I dallied on hitting “Publish” and this came out:
THE TROUGH MOVES OVERHEAD LATE MONDAY NIGHT RESULTING IN PERIODS OF RAIN AND WITH SNOW LEVELS QUICKLY FALLING...SNOW OVER THE MOUNTAINS. BY TUESDAY MORNING SNOW LEVELS SHOULD BE DOWN NEAR 3500 FT.
Stoked. Stoked for sunny mountains, the dusting of snow (welcome, but welcomed with avy trepidation), piezoelectric actuators, and, of course, the companion I’d share any of the above with anytime.
Pulsars
September 23, 2009 at 7:59 am | In Physics, Uncategorized | Leave a CommentThe LIGO collaboration just pushed a new paper to the arXiv. In it, they describe the search, using the most recent long science run, for known sources of gravitational waves (spinning pulsars whose spin is being slowed as they radiate gravitational waves). They’ve now reached or exceeded the spin-down limit for a pulsar or two (gravitational waves don’t do all the slowing, especially in young pulsars) and have tens of them within less than an order of magnitude of their noise. Advanced LIGO should, indeed, pick them up if they hit their noise goals…. The next decade will be very exciting in gravitational wave physics.
LIGO’s taken another step toward doing what was once sensibly believed to be nearly impossible. Congratulations are absolutely due.
Pragmatism
September 23, 2009 at 7:26 am | In Life | Leave a CommentThe descent of the new moon into the horizon over Puget Sound was very pretty last night. Caught without any real glassware, a plastic asphere had to do.
Look at the clock… it ain’t summer no more.
A little fiddling this morning suggests that the cell phone only “zooms” digitally. That’s perfect for enlarging a subject enough for a picture-messaging communique, but anathema to quality imaging.
Phantom
September 22, 2009 at 8:33 am | In Mountains, Skiing | Leave a CommentPhantom got skied! Check the new NWMJ !
I have some vague recollection that I might’ve heard this before, but it’s still fantastic! Congratulations to Todd Karner and Eben Sargent!
One of them even has a patent on a mandoline – perhaps that’s the key to the summertime Picket thrash.
Equinox
September 21, 2009 at 11:43 am | In Mountains | Leave a CommentIt’s not even here yet, but the cold front that rolled through here over the weekend is already dropping snow in Woodland Park.
Bring it! (Photo archived, to preserve the snowy image, from utepasscams.com ).
This weekend’s looking warm and clear (good for berry harvesting bears and splashing about in the lake), but one taste of cool nights has me hankering for more.
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
