The Cost of Astronomy

Papi's Story

Congratulations Steve!
Image Credit: Steven DeGennaro Today, we astronomers are honored to welcome yet another newly-minted PhD into our midst: Steven DeGennaro.  Steve is a graduate student here at the University of Texas at Austin, and this afternoon he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation.   Steve

Begging for money
The past several weeks I've been working on funding proposals for the National Science Foundation.  This just means I'm asking the government for money to do research.  And, despite what you may think, the government is stingy.  There are a lot of astronomers, and limited resources for research.  We have to spell out our proposed research in only 15 pages, and in that small amount of space we have to make people excited about our research and convince them that it is important and will succeed.  We have to anticipate and answer questions the reviewers will have about our science and proposed methods. 

A bitter retirement
Image Credit: James Liebert Those of you who regularly read my blog know that I often write about colleagues who are moving on to the next step in their careers, be it postdoctoral researchers who get jobs as professors, or graduate students who finish their PhDs (one of those is coming up later this week, we hope!).   Each of those are big steps, and worthy o

A prized lecture
Image Credit: McDonald Observatory Today we were treated to a lecture in memory of Antoinette de Vaucouleurs, who was an astronomer here at the University of Texas at Austin for 25 years.  She is well-known for extensive work on the photometry and radial velocities of galaxies, often collaborating with her husband, astronomer Gerard de Vaucouleurs.&n

Clear Skies Abundant
Image Credit: McDonald Observatory Crystal clear skies.  Maybe even clearer.  This is how I like my observing runs.  I'm finishing the 10th night of a 13-night observing run dedicated to looking at my favorite white dwa