"There just happened by chance to be a deep space optical telescope available for chasing after this event? I've always thought one needed to book time at observatories due to the high ratio of astronomers to available telescopes. How is it they can just take over an expensive instrument like this? What happens to anyone unfortunate enough to have reserved an observation run during this event?"
You are mostly right. All major telescopes are scheduled. Some operate in a classical observing mode (you are granted x number of nights, you go to the telescope and use them when you are scheduled to), some operate in a queue based mode (your observation is approved, the coordinates are put into a list and a computer automatically observes them when conditions are right) and some operate in a mixed mode (some nights classical, some nights queue). Because of this, one type of time award that you can be granted is called "target of opportunity" or interrupt time. Dr. Reichart's team (who I work with and will be joining full time in a few weeks) has interrupt time on both SOAR and Gemini South.
The basic chain of events is this: SWIFT sees a gamma ray burst go off and immediately relays the position of the of the burst to the ground. Reichart et. al. has a set of robotic telescopes in Chile called PROMPT. These telescopes (still being built, 3 are mostly operational right now, all six should be up and running later this year) are always running in queue mode. When a burst comes in, it goes to the top of the queue. If it is observable from Chile (if the Sun is down and the object is high enough in the sky) and if the weather is good, the PROMPT telescopes stop whatever they were doing and immediately slew to the position of the burst and start taking data. This all can happen in less than a minute from the initial burst. Meanwhile, folks on the ground have recieved email and text message notification of the burst and are deciding if they want to interrupt on the big telescopes. In the case of SOAR, it is currently in engineering and is not yet running in full scheduled mode. So if the telescope isn't being worked on, they can observe the target. In the case of Gemini South, it was operating in classical mode, so it couldn't be used until two days later. If you have real interrupt time, you can bump someone who is using it in classical mode. Since UNC (where Reichart is) is a partner in SOAR, he has true interrupt time. If he bumps an observer, he is charged for the time and the person who was bumped gets a time credit.
While the "burst" only lasts for a short time (usually tens of seconds) that doesn't mean the show is over. After the initial burst, the light output decays over a period of days. So while getting on them as quickly as possible is important, there is also a need for getting data in the days and weeks that follow.
I hate to say it but I have to agree with Snowman's sentiments.
I don't use Photoshop, I can't afford it. When I first started using the GIMP, I did so out of necessity. It was very non-intuitive for me at first. Since I had little choice but to use it, I stuck with it. It took me a while, but now I am very comfortable with using it. It is powerful, flexible, and free. There are some functions that I think should exist that don't. In fact I didn't care for some of the selection tools, so I used the perl scripting to cobble together my own selection tool.
Is the GIMP perfect? No, so please stop asking. Is Photoshop "better"? I haven't the faintest clue. The whole reason that more than one product exists is that no one product will be perfect for all applications and users. This is the reason that the open source movement and a free market capitalist society can work together. If what "we" as the open source community make works for you, great. If you can afford to pay for hundreds of professional programmers to build your software and need its features, great. Do so.
While I agree that the ARRL has a vested interest in this debate, I think it is fair to say that they know a thing or two about interference (see this link for instance). Not only has this been shown to interfere, think of the interference to BPL. Allowing this to go forward will force something to give.
This isn't just a local problem either. Have a look at this report from the ECC (they are a European agency) [NOTE: Sorry, it is in MS Word format]. They clearly believe that interference potential in the frequency range up to 30 MHz "are such that the risk of interference to radio services cannot be limited to a national or regional scale" (see the section entitled "General Conclusions of the report). This is a 112 page report, and while I freely admit I have not read all of it, they clearly say that this won't be a local problem, so just leaving the city isn't going to help. They go on to say that complete interference level restrictions won't work since so many devices currently give off interference in these ranges, but that the BPL (Called PLT in this report) will give "much higher" level of interference.
Several people in this tread have argued that amateur radio is a "dinosaur" or lived passed its usefulness. Many have already pointed out the problems with this. In many parts of the country, HF radio is the only reliable form of communication. In emergency situations HAM radio has proved itself many times over. Have a look here for instance. FEMA have defended the need for amateur radio on numerous occasions.
There is more at stake here than HAM. Have a look at this chart. Of particular interest are the chunks that are noted as "Radio Astronomy". Have a look at this report. Of note here is that the radio astronomy bands have issues with interference already. Solar and molecular cloud observations fall in these wavelengths. Do we really want to add to the pollution of the electromagnetic spectrum? The BPL system will also be subject to interference. This seems like a lose-lose situation to me.
Slashdot Mirror
"There just happened by chance to be a deep space optical telescope available for chasing after this event? I've always thought one needed to book time at observatories due to the high ratio of astronomers to available telescopes. How is it they can just take over an expensive instrument like this? What happens to anyone unfortunate enough to have reserved an observation run during this event?"
You are mostly right. All major telescopes are scheduled. Some operate in a classical observing mode (you are granted x number of nights, you go to the telescope and use them when you are scheduled to), some operate in a queue based mode (your observation is approved, the coordinates are put into a list and a computer automatically observes them when conditions are right) and some operate in a mixed mode (some nights classical, some nights queue). Because of this, one type of time award that you can be granted is called "target of opportunity" or interrupt time. Dr. Reichart's team (who I work with and will be joining full time in a few weeks) has interrupt time on both SOAR and Gemini South.
The basic chain of events is this: SWIFT sees a gamma ray burst go off and immediately relays the position of the of the burst to the ground. Reichart et. al. has a set of robotic telescopes in Chile called PROMPT. These telescopes (still being built, 3 are mostly operational right now, all six should be up and running later this year) are always running in queue mode. When a burst comes in, it goes to the top of the queue. If it is observable from Chile (if the Sun is down and the object is high enough in the sky) and if the weather is good, the PROMPT telescopes stop whatever they were doing and immediately slew to the position of the burst and start taking data. This all can happen in less than a minute from the initial burst. Meanwhile, folks on the ground have recieved email and text message notification of the burst and are deciding if they want to interrupt on the big telescopes. In the case of SOAR, it is currently in engineering and is not yet running in full scheduled mode. So if the telescope isn't being worked on, they can observe the target. In the case of Gemini South, it was operating in classical mode, so it couldn't be used until two days later. If you have real interrupt time, you can bump someone who is using it in classical mode. Since UNC (where Reichart is) is a partner in SOAR, he has true interrupt time. If he bumps an observer, he is charged for the time and the person who was bumped gets a time credit.
While the "burst" only lasts for a short time (usually tens of seconds) that doesn't mean the show is over. After the initial burst, the light output decays over a period of days. So while getting on them as quickly as possible is important, there is also a need for getting data in the days and weeks that follow.
I hate to say it but I have to agree with Snowman's sentiments.
I don't use Photoshop, I can't afford it. When I first started using the GIMP, I did so out of necessity. It was very non-intuitive for me at first. Since I had little choice but to use it, I stuck with it. It took me a while, but now I am very comfortable with using it. It is powerful, flexible, and free. There are some functions that I think should exist that don't. In fact I didn't care for some of the selection tools, so I used the perl scripting to cobble together my own selection tool.
Is the GIMP perfect? No, so please stop asking. Is Photoshop "better"? I haven't the faintest clue. The whole reason that more than one product exists is that no one product will be perfect for all applications and users. This is the reason that the open source movement and a free market capitalist society can work together. If what "we" as the open source community make works for you, great. If you can afford to pay for hundreds of professional programmers to build your software and need its features, great. Do so.
While I agree that the ARRL has a vested interest in this debate, I think it is fair to say that they know a thing or two about interference (see this link for instance). Not only has this been shown to interfere, think of the interference to BPL. Allowing this to go forward will force something to give.
This isn't just a local problem either. Have a look at this report from the ECC (they are a European agency) [NOTE: Sorry, it is in MS Word format]. They clearly believe that interference potential in the frequency range up to 30 MHz "are such that the risk of interference to radio services cannot be limited to a national or regional scale" (see the section entitled "General Conclusions of the report). This is a 112 page report, and while I freely admit I have not read all of it, they clearly say that this won't be a local problem, so just leaving the city isn't going to help. They go on to say that complete interference level restrictions won't work since so many devices currently give off interference in these ranges, but that the BPL (Called PLT in this report) will give "much higher" level of interference.
Several people in this tread have argued that amateur radio is a "dinosaur" or lived passed its usefulness. Many have already pointed out the problems with this. In many parts of the country, HF radio is the only reliable form of communication. In emergency situations HAM radio has proved itself many times over. Have a look here for instance. FEMA have defended the need for amateur radio on numerous occasions.
There is more at stake here than HAM. Have a look at this chart. Of particular interest are the chunks that are noted as "Radio Astronomy". Have a look at this report. Of note here is that the radio astronomy bands have issues with interference already. Solar and molecular cloud observations fall in these wavelengths. Do we really want to add to the pollution of the electromagnetic spectrum? The BPL system will also be subject to interference. This seems like a lose-lose situation to me.