Hi Astronomers; just joined
I thought I would give a quick background
Although I have had little practical experience with amateur-astronomy/telescopes, I’ve had a little to do with astronomy, relating more to the development/engineering side, and primarily radio-astronomy. As follows:
Bachelor of Science in Physics/Astrophysics at Macquarie University: 2000-2003
Did volunteer work for the monthly (?) Macquarie Astronomy night: 2002-2003
Correlator Operator and Data Quality Analyst at Australia Telescope National Facility, Marsfield: 2003-2007; got to visit Parkes a couple of times, including a week’s "observing" there
Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at University of Sydney: 2010-2014
Project/Thesis for Electrical Engineering: Developed a Field-Programmable Gate Array based design, for part of the radio-telescope Correlator, for Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope; it worked in the simulation, but was never written onto an FPGA, or tested, in the field.
Internship at Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope: 2014-2015 (12 weeks)
Started a Doctor of Philosophy research Degree, under Professor Peter Tuthill at Sydney Institute for Astronomy: 2015-2016 (1.5 years). It was in relatively new field, known as Astrophotonics. Spent a few days at Siding Spring Observatory.
Unfortunately I was struggling with health issues, and finally withdrew from the PhD; very disappointed.
I have largely lost contact with the astronomy community since. Hello to anyone out-there who may know me!!!
I now perform design, construction, repairs, maintenance, and modification of primarily valve-based guitar amplifiers, for a business I started in 2008. Unfortunately work is scarce and pays little-to-nothing.
Hi Gary. A lot of knowledge in many fields on this forum. Part of what makes this a great community. Nice to see another to add to the mix. Welcome! Cheers, Richard
Thank you Richard and Col, for your welcome.
As with many, I'd love to set up a decent observing system, but locally have poor seeing (Forestville, Northern Beaches), and simply don't have the expendable cash, to set up something really worthwhile. Especially having mucked about with the Anglo-Australian Telescope, and the like.