Cosmic Diary Logo

Meet the astronomers. See where they work. Know what they know.


The Project:

The Cosmic Diary is not just about astronomy. It's more about what it is like to be an astronomer.

The Cosmic Diary aims to put a human face on astronomy: professional scientists will blog in text and images about their lives, families, friends, hobbies and interests, as well as their work, their latest research findings and the challenges that face them. The bloggers represent a vibrant cross-section of female and male working astronomers from around the world, coming from five different continents. Outside the observatories, labs and offices they are musicians, mothers, photographers, athletes, amateur astronomers. At work, they are managers, observers, graduate students, grant proposers, instrument builders and data analysts.

Throughout this project, all the bloggers will be asked to explain one particular aspect of their work to the public. In a true exercise of science communication, these scientists will use easy-to-understand language to translate the nuts and bolts of their scientific research into a popular science article. This will be their challenge.

Task Group:

Mariana Barrosa (Portugal, ESO ePOD)
Nuno Marques (Portugal, Web Developer)
Lee Pullen (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
André Roquette (Portugal, ESO ePOD)

Jack Oughton (UK, Freelance Science Communicator)
Alice Enevoldsen (USA, Pacific Science Center)
Alberto Krone Martins (Brazil, Uni. S. Paulo / Uni. Bordeaux)
Kevin Govender (South Africa, S. A. A. O.)
Avivah Yamani (Indonesia, Rigel Kentaurus)
Henri Boffin (Belgium, ESO ePOD)

day to day

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Hi all!

In half an hour I have a videolink with my colleagues across the Atlantic in Germany. Astronomy is much a team effort with groups of astronomers which share the same interests all around the globe which makes it difficult to meet up in person but nowadays with videolink technology is much easier! Today I think I’ll be able to boast to my colleagues in Germany that it’s 30 Celsius here in Chile and -5 Celsius at their side! We spend a fair amount of our time in meetings which doesn’t sound very exciting but it is very necessary because projects are so big and move so fast which is almost impossible for an individual to be able to be up to date in all aspects of what is going on.

More later!

January 7th, 2009 | posted by Diego Garcia in General

Welcome to IYA 2009!!!!

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Dear All,

First of all I’d like to welcome you the the International Year of Astronomy 2009, secondly I apologise for the delay in my first posting. This was due to my first holidays in a very long time!!! First let me quickly introduce myself, my name is Diego and I am an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. I am involved in the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-millimetre Array) project which is being built in the Chajnantor Plateu in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. I spend half of my time working on my own science in the office in Santiago and the other half with duty work at the ALMA site.

I think that for today that should be it, I’d like to invite you to get involved with astronomy as much as you can, I believe you’ll find it fascinating even if you don’t fully understand everything about it! I’ll leave you with a picture of the volcan Villarica in the X Region in the south of Chile where I spent my New Year.

Volcan Villarica - Araucaria Region - South of Chile

Volcan Villarica - Araucania Region - South of Chile

January 6th, 2009 | posted by Diego Garcia in General

Antenna testing at the OSF

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This is my first shift at the OSF which stands for Operations Support Facilities, which is located at an altitude of 2900 metres above sea level in the Atacama dessert. Here we are testing the antennas which will form ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub-Millimetre Array, which will be placed at the Chajnantor Plateau at 5100 metres.

VERTEX antenna with Moon in the background

VERTEX antenna with Moon in the background

read more

December 9th, 2008 | posted by Diego Garcia in ALMA