Group

On July 13, I received a short email from Elinor Gates, my colleague at Lick Observatory: "The two crates arrived. I will have them moved into the lab later today." Below a picture of these mysterious black crates. What can we find inside these crates shipped from Observatoire de Paris-Meudon? Not a vampire as you may think, but the parts of an innovative instrument. That's a long story that I summarize  briefly today. During a long stay at Keck Observatory in Hawaii in Janury 2009 (see my post here and here), I mentioned my friends and colleagues Olivier Lai  from CFHT... read more ❯

I mentioned in my previous post that we observed several known multiple asteroid systems during our last observing run with the W.M. Keck Observatory and its Adaptive Optics Systems. If you have been following my blogs and/or the scientific articles of our group (you are courageous...) you should know that this is the scientific topic which is taking most of my time recently. Today, as you can see if you explore our VOBAD database,  we know 192 companions of asteroids. What I meant by "we know" is that one group announced to have discovered one or several satellites using techniques such... read more ❯

A new post on this blog is long overdue. I am busy as usual but I have been as well traveling a lot recently... and it is not over. Before telling you about my great trip at ESA-Madrid where I was a few days ago, I  would like to mention  recent developments in our numerical deconvolution method, called AIDA, which was done in collaborations with a group of students from the Clinic program Harvey Mudd College. On May 4th, I attended the Project Day at HMC, a private college located in southern California in Claremount which offered several maths, science and engineering... read more ❯

If you are an under-graduate student at UC-berkeley or in the area, and if you have interest in astronomy, you should know that a lot of professors and researchers are looking for motivated students to help them in their research. Very recently, the department of Astronomy at UC-Berkeley opened a web page which  list all available research opportunities. There are 15 projects so far in diverse field such as planetary science, galactic and extra-galactic sciences, cosmology which propose to use tools such as data processing, observations or theory. Whatever you like you will find a project that fits you. I have... read more ❯