We got observing time!

[NGC3314]

3. FOLLOW UP

We recently passed a major milestone in Galaxy Zoo, when we submitted the first observing proposals based on your discoveries. We're hoping to be able to use telescopes at Kitt Peak (http://www.noao.edu/kpno/) to chase some of the gravitational lenses that have been found in the data.  We're also following up the work of those of you who responded to a request for close pairs of galaxies (http://www.galaxyzooforum.org/index.php?topic=6732.0). Our proposals are now assessed by a committee of astronomers who decide who gets to use the telescope, and we should hear back in early December.

I am very pleased to pass on that we were just notified of a 5-night block of time on the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope to follow up some of the overlapping-galaxy pairs from the zoo. ZookeeperChris was a coinvestigator on this proposal, and as many of the other zookeepers implicitly as want to keep a hand in on the project.  This is scheduled in late April (nights aren't very long but the weather at Kitt Peak is typically pretty good then). Woohoo! I believe this amounts to sighting a big guy in a red suit preceded by subarctic ungulates. Oh, yeah - and thanks to everybody who's made this project possible. You found so many workable cases that the proposal title was "Backlit galaxies by the hundreds: new steps toward the evolution of dust". (Latest count: 692)

[ElisabethB]

Great news ! 

[Mark OConnell]

I am so glad we were able to help you get this time.     Wow, 5 whole nights!

[jules]

Excellent News! I assume you still want us to post more overlapping galaxies?

[Rick Nowell]

to chase some of the gravitational lenses that have been found in the data.

Good news you've got some time! Wonderful! Are any gravitational lenses up for observing, or have they all been
discounted?

[zookeeperChris]

No news on the gravitational lensing proposal - I'd expect to have some in the next few days.

This - http://www.noao.edu/wiyn/ - is the telescope that will be used to follow up YOUR work. Congratulations, all of you.

[NGC3314]

Excellent News! I assume you still want us to post more overlapping galaxies?

Yes, indeed! The fact that some fairly bright ones are still being newly posted, and obvious remaining gaps in the list in the narrow strip crossing the (northern) autumn sky, show that the GZ sample has more to be found.

By the way - this information wasn't  in the first email I got, but looking at the telescope schedule, we are set to use a device called OPTIC which can follow atmospheric jittering of images by moving the corresponding image around on the CCD chip during an exposure. This improves the resolution of images, especially on a modern telescope of WIYN's optical quality. This is further good news (although more to keep up with while observing), since we really wanted to see how far this project can be pushed fro the ground.

[EricFDiaz]

That's wonderful news! Eric

[Mark OConnell]

Awesome! Just make sure you take care of yourself before then. We would not want you to run into a tree while skiing. After all you have 100,000 people riding on your shoulders, but hey, no pressure. 

Seriously, we will be here cheering for the two of you. We are better then teachers on project deadlines: We offer super encouragement lopped on you ever minute of the day and night pressure. 

Make sure you take pictures of each other with normal cameras so you have something to share with us when you get back.

[Halibut]

Excellent!  That sounds like amazing news, I hope you'll let us know what you find when you get there

[elizabeth]

  5 nights that's wonderful

[Half65]

Great news. 

[fluffyporcupine]

Wow that is fantastic!

[Dawn K]

Congratulations!  Can't wait for the next phase!

Dawn K

[NGC3314]

Our local newspaper carried a short item about the galaxy-overlap followup, based on an interview by the reporter following the news releases from Oxford and UA. The online text is here (I don't think registration is required for current items...). To fit at least the web format, the story omitted the bit about followup telescope time, and also leaves out that our previous paper used pairs automatically selected for having two redshifts in SDSS data (and thus having to be extremely close in the sky). Some Hollywood agent once said there's no bad publicity... This also means that I really need to get busy updating my research web site on dust in backlit galaxies!