The jet-set lifestyle

I will be in the UK in January for exactly 3 days. Before the Sella holiday I was observing at my favourite telescopes on La Palma, in the Canary Islands. Since then I've been at another observatory, but in a slightly more exotic location - Doi Inthanon, in Northern Thailand.

Doi Inthanon is the highest point in Thailand, and it's where the Thai's have chosen to build their first professional observatory. Building an observatory like this allows the Thai's to strengthen their technological industries, and to improve collaborations with international scientists. Which is where I come in. I'm lucky enough to work with Prof Vik Dhillon in Sheffield, who's a bit of a top boffin when it comes to designing cameras for astronomy. We've entered into an agreement with the Thais, in which we provide them with a state-of-the-art camera, and they provide us with 30 nights of observing time each year.

The 2.4m Thai National Telescope

The telescope is certainly in a very nice place - Doi Inthanon is a national park, home of the Karen hill tribe and site of many waterfalls and protected "cloud forest". And therein lies the snag. If you know anything about astronomy you'll know that clouds are not good news. And Doi Inthanon is not entirely un-cloudy or wet. In fact, wikipedia tells us

"The summit experiences average year-round temperatures in the low to mid teens (Celsius) and high humidity...flora includes evergreen cloud forest, sphagnum bog, and deciduous dipterocarp forest."

I'll be honest, all that cloud and humidity does hamper the observatory somewhat. Frustratingly the sky is often perfectly clear, but the telescope cannot observe due to high humidity. This is what is going on tonight, giving me the time to write this blog.

The twin Chedis, Naphamethinidon and Naphaphonphumisiri. Also - note clouds.

A bit 'o' scenery for you

Apart from the trees and clouds, and the excitement of eating spicy noodle soup for breakfast, life at Doi Inthanon is much like life at any other observatory. The long shifts give me just enough time to get six or seven hours of sleep, eat breakfast and then put in another long shift. It's a shame there's no time to explore, or visit some of the local villages. It's even more of a shame because Doi Inthanon is a massive lump of granite, and there's some pretty decent looking cliffs scattered about, clean and unclimbed. I'm not sure whether they're accessible, or if I'll get chased off the land by farmers with machetes but I do intend at some point to recruit some local climbers and head off for a look.

Yes, it's a telescope. And some astronomers

Forests and waterfalls - not the first thing you look for in an observatory site.

And speaking of climbing, I haven't forgotten F-BO. I know Will Atkinson will be thinking he's in with a chance, but I have my portable fingerboard that Ned made me, and a whole load of creative ways of using it to simulate "real" training. So I'm keeping in pretty good shape and, what with the spicy noodles for breakfast, losing a few pounds too. F-BO, here we come...

All I need is a fingerboard, and a beam to hang her off