Almost full circle, about 10 years after my first picture at ESO was taken I'm back in Garching bei Munich en-route to a meeting at ESO, March 2017
John was invited to a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the Milankovic telescope in Serbia in June 2016. See http://belissima.aob.rs/ for details. This is the dome of another small telescope on the same site.
The final OPTICON common Time Allocation meeting was held in Granada in May 2016.
March 2016. Observing at the INT in La Palma. Great to be back at a telescope.
This is the Hellenic Air Force museum outside Athens. I had a really good visit and send my thanks to the chap who showed me around.
This is the view from my hotel in Athens, where John was attending an OPTICON board meeting.
On holiday in iceland with John and Maggie, May 2015. This is at Pingvallavatn, (sorry I don't have the correct character here, its like a P with an extended upright) which lies in a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It was the site of the original Icelandic 'parliament' established in 930AD. The lake here, off to the right, is the largest in Iceland.
On the bridge in Heidelberg, with the castle in the background. We had the OPTICON CTAC meeting here in April 2015.
In Granada for the OPTICON board meeting in 2014. The Alhambra is in the background.
In Milan for the OPTICON CTAC meeting for 2015A. We met in the Observatory of Brera and this church was just down the road from my hotel. We did not have enough time to do any sight-seeing, it was one of those fly in -work- fly out trips.
In Warsaw for the OPTICON WP11/GAIA meeting in September 2014. During a break we returned to the Museum of Military Technology at 'Fort IX' on the outskirts of the city. Nothing had changed since last year, and it was even duller weather. It is an SU-22M-3K in the background with a bit of an Il-28 visible at right.
On a visit to CERN. This is the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment on the Large Hadron Collier which contributed to the discovery of the Higgs Boson. The protons go around in the tiny silver pipe at close to the speed of light. The CMS facility is 100m underground and includes two caverns. This is the 53-metre long, 27-metre wide and 24-metre high experiment cavern. The heaviest bit of the detector weighs 2000 tonnes. It is VERY impressive techology.
Anyone remember the TV programme 'The Champions', about 3 people with psychic powers? They were based in Geneva and this fountain featured in the title sequence. We were here for the July 2014 EWASS meeting.
A very early start had us at a meeting in Schiphol in June 2014. After it finished John and I went onto the terminal roof viewing gallery. This is the undercarriage of a Fokker 100 up there on display.
The November 2013 Board meeting was held in Palermo, in Sicily. This is the view from the roof of the meeting place, at the historic observatory. The first asteroid was discovered here.
Visiting Ljubljana, Slovenia to present a talk at the Physics department. Its a lovely city centre but it rained almost all the time we were there (well it was November). It was the first time I had seen people cycling and holding umbrellas at the same time. Somehow a fountain, and the castle almost lost in clouds, seemed like the right thing to be photographed with.
Tanks, Planes, Guns. What more could he want? This is the Army museum in Warsaw. We were there for the OPTICON TAC meeting in October and then stayed over for an astronomy conference on public outreach the following week. Its a Mig-21 with an Antonov An-26 behind it. Eagle eyed spotters can also find a Mig-29 Fulcum in the background.
This is the observatory in Bucharest, Romania. OPTICON had one of its 'Awareness' conferences for young astronomers here in September so John came along to check it out.
The 2013EWASS (aka JENAM) meeting in July was in the Finnish City of Turku. In one of the free periods we took a boat cruise.
After the Turku meeting Maggie and John and I had a few days off in Helsinki. This is the brick built orthodox church near the harbour
Paris, Jardin des Luxemborg and the palace. A bunch of us had a picnic lunch here during a break in the ESA L2/L3 mission selection briefing meeting. John says its a shame he will probably be dead vefore any of them fly.
No Rhinoceros were harmed during the filming of the web-page.
John Keith Davies
Astronomy Technology Centre, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill,
Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ
j.davies@roe.ac.uk
tel: (44) 0131 668 8348 /
fax: (44) 0131 662 1668/
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