Chris Walter
@chriswalter.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy
Professor of physics at Duke University. Studies particle physics and cosmology. Works on Super-Kamiokande and also LSST at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
[bridged from https://fediscience.org/@ChrisWalter on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
[bridged from https://fediscience.org/@ChrisWalter on the fediverse by https://fed.brid.gy/ ]
@briankrebs Cool! It is in fact quite amazing now what you can do with a phone camera. I had time to play with this when I was living in Chile working on commissioning a new telescope last year.
I also have a 15pro. If you can use a travel tripod you can get […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
I also have a 15pro. If you can use a travel tripod you can get […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
October 20, 2025 at 11:56 PM
@briankrebs Cool! It is in fact quite amazing now what you can do with a phone camera. I had time to play with this when I was living in Chile working on commissioning a new telescope last year.
I also have a 15pro. If you can use a travel tripod you can get […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
I also have a 15pro. If you can use a travel tripod you can get […]
[Original post on fediscience.org]
@vicgrinberg @tomgauld.bsky.social Yes, thank you!
September 30, 2025 at 4:40 PM
@vicgrinberg @tomgauld.bsky.social Yes, thank you!
@ElenLeFoll @DieterLukas Great to see this kind of help for each other on Fediscience!
September 22, 2025 at 10:18 PM
@ElenLeFoll @DieterLukas Great to see this kind of help for each other on Fediscience!
Reposted by Chris Walter
This is the "Ann Plate", a photograph that was taken during the commissioning of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in 1974 as a demonstration of the capabilities of new telescope.
The AAT was the first large telescope to be completely computer controlled […]
[Original post on aus.social]
The AAT was the first large telescope to be completely computer controlled […]
[Original post on aus.social]
![Photo of a page from the symposium proceedings "Celebrating the AAO: Past, Present and Future"
Text is as follows:
4. On the Ann plate
The famous "Ann plate", showing the capabilities of the AAT's computer control system, appear in teh paper by Pat Wallace in this volume. While the photograph is widely remembered, exactly who took it is slightly uncertain, and probably irrelevant. However, for the record:
Pat Wallace: I did the experiment and processed the plate, but I think an AAT technician was present in the PF cage for opening and closing the shutter, with me at the telescope controls... I guess it was 1975 [It was 22 December 1974]
Peter Gillingham: I don't think it much matters but I'm almost certain Ken Oliver (the first AAT electrician) was the Night Assistant for the night and he was the one in the PF cage. But, as Patrick says, aII he had to do was to open and close the shutter (several times) as Pat commanded.
It's also my quite confident recollection that, one or two nights earlier as we (Pat, very likely John Straede, and I) were discussing what should be traced on such a plate and puzzling over what would be a suitable word, Ann Savage, came into the Control Room and, on being acquainted with the topic of conversation, suggested "Ann" right away, pointing out its geometric simplicity [and only two alphabetic characters had to be encoded!].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:snbpxx4fxrcw4bvs2okniwfc/bafkreic4rwqasa3fjoci22ny7x4pb7o3hyv7whre7zwbbwpmkgj6kkv5oe@jpeg)
![Photo of a page from the symposium proceedings "Celebrating the AAO: Past, Present & Future". The relevant part of the text is as follows:
As I releated at [this] meeting, Californian astronomer Sandra Faber told me before I left Keck that, on seeing the Ann plate image projected at an astronomy instrumentation meeting attended by Pat and Graham Bothwell (at MIT?) she knew that a new era in instrumentation had dawned.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:snbpxx4fxrcw4bvs2okniwfc/bafkreihpzjlgxuafwn5m6tpx7powux65fijdumzsimvmr7e36zrzddqjhu@jpeg)
September 15, 2025 at 3:35 AM
This is the "Ann Plate", a photograph that was taken during the commissioning of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in 1974 as a demonstration of the capabilities of new telescope.
The AAT was the first large telescope to be completely computer controlled […]
[Original post on aus.social]
The AAT was the first large telescope to be completely computer controlled […]
[Original post on aus.social]
@ElenLeFoll Interesting idea to have them do it together!
June 4, 2025 at 10:27 PM
@ElenLeFoll Interesting idea to have them do it together!
@sundogplanets This sounds great! What did you ask them to do for the project?
April 23, 2025 at 4:17 PM
@sundogplanets This sounds great! What did you ask them to do for the project?
Reposted by Chris Walter
There's an absolutely wild statement on wikipedia that a base-11 system was "briefly proposed during the French Revolution to settle a dispute between those proposing a shift to duodecimal and those who were content with decimal".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecimal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecimal
Undecimal - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
April 11, 2025 at 9:12 AM
There's an absolutely wild statement on wikipedia that a base-11 system was "briefly proposed during the French Revolution to settle a dispute between those proposing a shift to duodecimal and those who were content with decimal".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecimal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecimal