Observatory

I'm off to Bedford schools observatory in a bit! I'm pretty excited now- this has been an action packed week!


So now I need to go and find some warm clothing- although this is good news as because its so cold we should have a really good view of the sky.

This is what we should be able to see this month:

CERN, Christmas trees and tickets

This week has been really exciting and its only wednesday!

Traff put our christmas tree up whilst I was at work on tuesday- we have a black christmas tree and last year I decorated it silver and pint and it looked REALLY smart.
Traff's decorated it with my red and white decorations from poundland- I got them when we lived in the Birthdir! haha
there is just not accounting for taste...

Never mind, at least the tree is up! now I can put all the presents I've so carefully wrapped under it!
(I'm not gloating or anything, but I have finished my christmas shopping.. I'm just saying..)

I've booked my flights and hotel to go to Geneva in march with my work colleagues- I'm pretty excited for this as it'll be a proper adventure!


We get to have a guided tour by a research scientist and see some of the projects that are currently being worked on- which will be awesome.

I went to a craft evening on Tuesday with michelle- and before we went I cooked dinner (It cooked much faster once I turned the hob on.. )
We went to the craft evens that run at 229 in kempston- the lady who runs it is an angel- shes so kindly and patient! (they start at 7:30 too- so you can have dinner too!) AND they serve cake and tea whilst you're crafting!

Anyway, it was a christmas theme.
We were supposed to make hanging decorations from embroidery hoops.
I did make a hanging picture, but I made mine with a russian doll motif on it. Traff asked me why I'd embroidered a picture of a sleeping bag.
Michelle made a very retro looking table decoration.
And we ate cake!

Today I booked Deftones tickets for February for Traffs Xmas present- So that will be good fun!

And we get another adventure for free because we have to go to Birmingham. Hopefully by train.

I'm also off to cardiff with Kirstie next month- We've booked our winter wonderland tickets already! now its just the hotel and train tickets to sort out...

I'm excited to let my hair down and see everyone again. I miss you welsh people!

We're hoping to go on the cardiff eye. with wine. 

and now I'm contemplating booking some fairport convention tickets...

I love them too much!

Look up their song "matty groves"! it's super-awesome!

Cloud chambers

Today myself and 4 colleagues (past and present) went on an IOP cloud chamber making course.
The course venue got moved from buckingham (30 min away) to Wednover (1 hour 15 min away) which made for a proper adventure.

We left work at 3 - to give us plenty of time to get there and we managed to arrive in good time for some pints and crisps- we wanted proper food but it turns out that wendover is a backwards place and no-where sells food till after 5pm. which was when our course started.
The drive was really funny- its been ages sinceI've driven a car full of people- I'd forgotten how interesting and distracting it can make journeys!

We made a cloud champer each and got them working just using cosmic radiaton- although you can use welding rods as a radioactive source.
We also tried bananas. they just froze solid.

After the course we tried another pub for food- they didn't serve any but we had some more pints and chatted about terry pratchett.

so, it is now almost 10pm on a weeknight and I've finally got in my front door- and I am the proud owner of a very home made looking cloud chamber...

it turned out that making a cloud chamber isn't very taxing- here are the instructions from the royal society of chemistrys website:

A clear, see-through box-like plastic container, with flat sides and an open top, roughly 20 x 30cm (open side) x 15cm (height)

• A metal plate (at least 5mm thick) to cover the open size of the container completely (plate must be a little bit larger than the box). The plate should be preferably black and should have a little grooves matching the side walls of the plastic box. As this is probably hard to find, you can also use a flat metal plate and use black electrical tape to make the metal plate surface black.

• A thick felt (few mm), a bit smaller than the bottom of the box. • 4 clips (self-adhesive cable-tie holders + cable ties) to attach the

felt to the inside of the bottom of the box • A small wooden box that is just a little bit larger in area than the

metal plate and approx. 5cm in height. The box later on has to take the ice plates and the metal plate but the sides should not be much higher so that it doesn’t cover the plastic box.

• A very intense, bundled light source, e.g. a slide projector, strong flashlight ...

• Pure (not 70%) isopropyl alcohol – make sure you get the right one – it will only work well with this one it and keep it out of reach of children).

• Dry Ice (Careful with your hands – always use thick gloves and never touch the ice directly! The ice is at -78oC; touching it directly will give you a burn.)

• Security goggles to handle the ice • Gloves to handle the ice and the alcohol

A Cloud Chamber, is a device used by nuclear physicists to detect and study elementary particles Among the many particles that can be detected are alpha particles, protons, electrons, positrons, and various types of mesons. These particles are emitted by unstable (radioactive) atomic nuclei and produced during nuclear collisions. Some of them reach the earth as cosmic rays.

In a cloud chamber, the path of a particle appears as a track of mist called a cloud track. By studying the track, or a photograph of it, a physicist can determine the energy and electric charge of the particle that produced it. Every kind of particle has a characteristic cloud track, which varies in shape, length, and width. Many elementary particles have been discovered through their characteristic cloud track.

Don't get too excited- its basically an upside down fish tank of alcohol, mounted on a baking tray, placed in a gratinal tray of dry ice.

I'll post some photos soon 

Wintery walk

On sunday evening Traff and I went for a walk through the nature reserve and towards Clapham park.
We didn't bank on how early it would get dark- although thankfully Traff remembered to bring his front bike light or we might have had to sleep in a bush!

It's really pretty. We will be mooching about there when we're about in the day.

Traff wearing his grungy hoodie. and the moon! :)

Countryside. its weird coz this is like 5 minutes from my front door! so much open space. 

more tim burton trees and wintery skies.

we walked quite a long way before we realised how dark it was- it gets dark so gradually- all of a sudden we were like "wait, I can't see where the path goes anymore". that was when we turned back-armed with a torch!

We were muddy almost to our knees!

Creepy wifeling.

We headed home for dinner- this was only about 5:30pm! still, it was a good adventure!

And this time we didn't get chased by cows.

Winner

The grass was getting frosty and where my shoes were wet from the mud it was freezing the grass to my shoes- really weird.