The Wonderful Life as Interim Observatory Director of the Allan I. Carswell Observatory

This past year while I was in Australia, PVL PhD student Indiana Jones (I mean, Charissa Campbell - see the photo below the cut below) took on a very unusual TAing assignment in the Department of Physics. But she handled the assignment with grace, growing into the role. She returns to the lab with a new skill-set that I have no doubt will help her reach her graduate student goals.

By Charissa Campbell  

From January till July 2019 I had the great honour of being the Interim Observatory Director of the campus observatory, known as the Allan I. Carswell Observatory. The great Paul Delaney was on sabbatical for 6 months and needed a temporary replacement to maintain the observatory while he was gone. I immediately jumped on the idea when Paul asked me as not only would I gain valuable outreach and leadership experience, but it would allow me the ability to work with telescopes, always a passion of mine.

The observatory houses two telescopes, a 40 cm and 60 cm. This size describes the diameter of the primary mirror in the telescope. The bigger the mirror, the brighter are the objects that you observe, allowing you to see dimmer things that are often farther away. We’ve been lucky enough to be able to get a new telescope with a 1 m mirror, the largest on a Canadian campus (https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/university-new-telescope-research-1.4287794). It was supposed to be installed December 2018 (before Paul left on sabbatical), but was unfortunately delayed. This is common with important piece of equipment, especially of the astronomy related kind. I will admit that I was a little relieved that the 1 m was delayed until Paul got back as I would have been significantly busier as the telescope would have been in high demand for tours, media, etc. Keep an eye out for when the new telescope is ready! For more information on the different events the observatory does, feel free to check out their website: http://observatory.info.yorku.ca

Dr. Godin’s TEPS Internship or How I learned to stop Physicsing and Love Micro-Biology

PVL PDF Paul Godin recently returned from his TEPS internship at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was a productive trip and he made many friends along the way, including the character over his shoulder to the right in the picture above.

By Dr. Paul Godin

Many members of the PVL receive funding from the Technologies for Exo-planetary Science (TEPS) NSERC CREATE program (http://teps.science.yorku.ca/). TEPS is more than just funding for the group, it also provides opportunities for go on international research internships. This past spring, I was accepted for an internship at the Space Life Sciences Lab (SLSL) at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The SLSL was originally built as a collaboration between NASA and the University of Florida to conduct biology-based experiments relevant to the space program. However, about 10 years ago NASA sold off their portion of the building to Space Florida, a state government agency responsible for promoting the space sector in Florida; the University of Florida portion remains. My internship was under one of these University of Florida professors, Dr. Andrew C. Schuerger. 

Andy’s lab focuses on planetary protection, which is insuring that missions to other planets don’t accidentally contaminate those worlds with terrestrial microbes. As such Andy’s lab conducts experiments testing the limits of bacterial survivability in extreme environments. The centerpiece of his lab is a state-of-the-art Mars simulation chamber, capable of recreating the temperature, atmosphere, and UV light conditions on Mars.