36-inch refractor and Main building circa 1890. Lick Observatory (Mary Lea Shane Archives, UCSC Libraries)
Cleaning the 3-meter Shane mirror for realuminizing.
Main buidling and poppies. Lick Observatory
(Image courtesty of L. Hatch © )
Via Lactea I simulation of Milky Way dark matter and satellites (Diemand and Madau)
Shane 3 m and telescopes at twilight. Lick Observatory
(Image courtesty of L. Hatch © )
Lick Observatory 36-inch construction circa 1886, Mt. Hamilton. (Mary Lea Shane Archives, UCSC Libraries)
Lick Observatory with 3-m and 36-inch telescopes.
(Image courtesty of L. Hatch © )
Twin Keck 10 m telescopes with Subaru, Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

ASTRO BLASTS JUST IN......

 

UCSC Astronomy department professors Faber and Krumholz lead fellow UC professors in warning State and University Officials against faculty salary cuts that last more than one year. [More]

300 eminent UC Scientists write Governor Schwarzenegger regarding latest round of proposed cuts to UC budget.  Full text may be found here.

 

UCSC earns top ranking for scientific impact of Astronomy research

UC Santa Cruz is the top-ranking university in the country for the quality of its research in astronomy and astrophysics, according to a new analysis of papers published in scientific journals and how often those papers are cited by other scientists. [More]


Highlights

Supernova: Seeding Talent in Physics and Astrophysics to Prepare the Next Generation Workforce in the Bay Area
asteinacatucsc [dot] edu (Adriane Steinacker) (Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics) and David Belanger (Department of Physics) have received a five year grant of $600,000 from the National Science Foundation with the goal of creating opportunities for talented but financially needy students to complete a baccalaureate degree in physics or astrophysics, a track that will ensure them high chances of landing a well-paid job with a broad range of choices. [More] 






Thinking at the edge

News

new Astronomer Jerry Nelson interviewed about the
Thirty Meter Telescope at the recent Halliday Lecture by Wired Magazine.
 [11/18/2009] [link]
new UCSC astrophysicists have developed supercomputer simulations
 of colliding white dwarfs, providing a new path to detonate "standard candle" type Ia supernovae. A new study published this month in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and featured in a Scientific American  article.
 [11/09/2009] [link]
new UCSC Astrophysicist Mark Krumholz featured as "rising star" in the Fall 2009 UCSC Review [11/03/2009] [link]
new UCSC Astronomer Jerry Nelson featured in the October edition of
Science about the Thirty Meter Telescope.
 [10/31/2009]
new Astronomy alum Marla Geha chosen as one of PopSci's annual
Brilliant 10- a selection of the brightest young researchers in the country.
 [10/19/2009] [link]
new UCSC physicist Anthony Aguirre
highlighted in Discover and Astronomy magazine feature stories on the possibility that we inhabit just one of many "universes"-- and that we might actually be able to detect the presence of others.
 [09/15/2009]
new Astronomer Garth Illingworth leads team that has begun observations
 with new images and spectra from a rejuventated Hubble Space Telescope and is quoted on this subject in two ScienceNews articles; September 16th and September 26th.
 [09/14/2009]
new Lick Observatory celebrates 50th anniversary of Shane Telescope
 For 50 years, the 3-meter Shane Telescope has helped keep Lick Observatory at the forefront of modern astronomy.
 [09/04/2009] [link]
new Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, UCSC astrophysicist, has an article published
this week in Nature discussing the origin of short gamma-ray bursts.
 [08/27/2009]
Fermi results featured on the cover
 of Science. A team of UCSC physicists at the Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics (SCIPP) played a leading role in the development of the instrument. UCSC physicists and astronomers are coauthors of three major papers reporting scientific results from Fermi in the July issue. [08/24/2009] [link]
more