Dr. Amy Lowitz
@weblogarithms.bsky.social
Physics PhD, grumpy old lady. Frequent Antarctican. Event Horizon Telescope & South Pole Telescope (not speaking for them). Same @ on 🧵, 🐘, and 📷.
Out-of-Context Quote of the Day: "HP Lovecraft didn't have GPS. Coincidence? I think not!"
October 29, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Out-of-Context Quote of the Day: "HP Lovecraft didn't have GPS. Coincidence? I think not!"
Out-of-Context Quote of the Day: "I don't think witches are required for forests, like, even as a single gauge particle."
October 28, 2025 at 5:19 AM
Out-of-Context Quote of the Day: "I don't think witches are required for forests, like, even as a single gauge particle."
Out-of-Context Quote of the Day: In the limit that you are very very close you can never see to the other side of the forest if there are >0 trees
October 28, 2025 at 5:07 AM
Out-of-Context Quote of the Day: In the limit that you are very very close you can never see to the other side of the forest if there are >0 trees
Out-of-context Quote of the Day: "Did you make any more long necked creatures today? Any more beverages named after members of your family?"
July 31, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Out-of-context Quote of the Day: "Did you make any more long necked creatures today? Any more beverages named after members of your family?"
What do we think the probability is that I can get this thing all the way to 24.04? 😅🤣
December 27, 2024 at 4:32 PM
What do we think the probability is that I can get this thing all the way to 24.04? 😅🤣
A totally normal number of cookies (unrelated to the totally normal number of power supplies I posted the other day, I swear).
November 28, 2024 at 8:25 PM
A totally normal number of cookies (unrelated to the totally normal number of power supplies I posted the other day, I swear).
Casually hogging every 50 ohm termination in the lab. #justRFthings 🧪🔭
November 26, 2024 at 10:37 PM
Casually hogging every 50 ohm termination in the lab. #justRFthings 🧪🔭
We're in production mode, y'all. These will be used to track the MASER stability at most of the Event Horizon Telescope sites. 🧪🔭🕕
November 23, 2024 at 12:18 AM
We're in production mode, y'all. These will be used to track the MASER stability at most of the Event Horizon Telescope sites. 🧪🔭🕕
A totally normal number of power supplies:
November 21, 2024 at 11:54 PM
A totally normal number of power supplies:
It seems this place is getting busy again, so maybe I'll try out spending some time here again.
Anyway, as proof(?) I did some science in the last 11mo since my last post, here's the SMT on Mt Graham from when I was up there for the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) campaign in April.
Anyway, as proof(?) I did some science in the last 11mo since my last post, here's the SMT on Mt Graham from when I was up there for the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) campaign in April.
November 16, 2024 at 4:02 PM
It seems this place is getting busy again, so maybe I'll try out spending some time here again.
Anyway, as proof(?) I did some science in the last 11mo since my last post, here's the SMT on Mt Graham from when I was up there for the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) campaign in April.
Anyway, as proof(?) I did some science in the last 11mo since my last post, here's the SMT on Mt Graham from when I was up there for the EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) campaign in April.
Yesterday's activity: replace some shunt resistors in the EHT recorders, and then my crates of disk modules for the SPT 2024 EHT campaign arrived, so I unpacked all of the disks and installed them in the recorders, ready for April. 🔭🇦🇶📡🕳️🌌
November 23, 2023 at 5:28 PM
Yesterday's activity: replace some shunt resistors in the EHT recorders, and then my crates of disk modules for the SPT 2024 EHT campaign arrived, so I unpacked all of the disks and installed them in the recorders, ready for April. 🔭🇦🇶📡🕳️🌌
Today I spoke about EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) to some members of Congress and staffers who came to visit us at Pole and learn about the science we do here. 🔭🇦🇶🕳️🌌
November 22, 2023 at 4:20 AM
Today I spoke about EHT (Event Horizon Telescope) to some members of Congress and staffers who came to visit us at Pole and learn about the science we do here. 🔭🇦🇶🕳️🌌
Made it to Pole! I'm here to do some work on the South Pole Telescope for the Event Horizon Telescope. 🔭🇦🇶📡🌌🕳️
November 22, 2023 at 3:48 AM
Made it to Pole! I'm here to do some work on the South Pole Telescope for the Event Horizon Telescope. 🔭🇦🇶📡🌌🕳️
We're on the plane! Here we gooooo!
November 19, 2023 at 10:05 PM
We're on the plane! Here we gooooo!
Haven't even left the hotel yet and we're already on a 2h delay for our ice flight today.
November 19, 2023 at 5:43 PM
Haven't even left the hotel yet and we're already on a 2h delay for our ice flight today.
Trying on my loaner cold weather gear a couple days ago in Christchurch. Hopefully we're heading to McMurdo today and then Pole tomorrow (but probably the weather and airplane maintenance gods have other plans).
November 19, 2023 at 5:42 PM
Trying on my loaner cold weather gear a couple days ago in Christchurch. Hopefully we're heading to McMurdo today and then Pole tomorrow (but probably the weather and airplane maintenance gods have other plans).
And so begins another trip to the South Pole (with chaotic packing the night before). 🇦🇶🔭📡🌌🕳️
November 15, 2023 at 1:03 AM
And so begins another trip to the South Pole (with chaotic packing the night before). 🇦🇶🔭📡🌌🕳️
Last weekend I got to visit the Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona to see the casting of the 7th mirror for the GMT. Tied with the other 6 GMT mirrors, it's the largest monolithic mirror ever cast, at 8.4m. That whole round structure is a spinning furnace, and it's about 1200°C inside. 🔭
October 15, 2023 at 7:21 PM
Last weekend I got to visit the Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona to see the casting of the 7th mirror for the GMT. Tied with the other 6 GMT mirrors, it's the largest monolithic mirror ever cast, at 8.4m. That whole round structure is a spinning furnace, and it's about 1200°C inside. 🔭
Wanna view the eclipse and have literally no supplies? You can make a pinhole camera with just your hand! (hold your hand so just a tiny dot of light goes through). 🔭
October 14, 2023 at 4:46 PM
Wanna view the eclipse and have literally no supplies? You can make a pinhole camera with just your hand! (hold your hand so just a tiny dot of light goes through). 🔭
Got my flu shot today! 💉 Have you scheduled yours yet?
September 28, 2023 at 2:11 AM
Got my flu shot today! 💉 Have you scheduled yours yet?
SolidWorks: like Legos for grown-ups.
September 26, 2023 at 11:12 PM
SolidWorks: like Legos for grown-ups.
Telescoooooooope! Went up to the Kitt Peak 12m on Thursday to take care of some EHT maintenance odds and ends.
July 29, 2023 at 5:06 AM
Telescoooooooope! Went up to the Kitt Peak 12m on Thursday to take care of some EHT maintenance odds and ends.
Hellooo Blueverse(?), I'm a physicist who builds telescopes. Sometimes I post about my work, which sometimes involves traveling to telescopes in cool places like Antarctica, and sometimes I post about whatever unrelated random thing pops into my head.
July 25, 2023 at 2:11 AM
Hellooo Blueverse(?), I'm a physicist who builds telescopes. Sometimes I post about my work, which sometimes involves traveling to telescopes in cool places like Antarctica, and sometimes I post about whatever unrelated random thing pops into my head.