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Points of the Compass

Posted in Biographical with tags , , , , , , , , on August 8, 2025 by telescoper

A while ago I posted about the countries that I’ve visited over the years. The result is summarized in this map:

You can see that I haven’t seen that much of the world. In fact the map exaggerates what I have seen, because the only place I have visited in Canada was Toronto (and some places to the West of that); I have visited the USA too, but not Alaska.  Likewise the only bit of Australia I’ve visited is Sydney and environs.

Anyway, I saw a thread on BlueSky yesterday which was asking people what was the furthest places on land they have visited North, South, East, and West. Here are my answers:

  • North. Tromsø (Norway), Latitude 69° 39′ N;
  • South. Cape Town (South Africa), Latitude 33° 55′ S;
  • East. Sydney (Australia). Longitude,  151° 12′ E;
  • West. San Francisco (USA). Longitude, 122° 27′ W.

I was initially tempted to put Nagoya (Japan) as my furthest East, but at a mere 136° 55′ it’s nowhere near as far East as Sydney. I wasn’t sure which of Sydney or Cape Town is furthest South either, but Sydney is just a little further North (33° 52′). I went to Tromsø years ago for an Aurora watch, which was great fun. Other than that my furthest North is Reykjavik (Iceland). Many of my observational astronomy colleagues will have been to Hawaii, which easily beats me in the westerly direction. Others have been to Antarctica, which beats me down under.

So my span is about 270° E-W (maximum of 360°) and about 103° N-S (maximum of 180°). Not that impressive really.

Anyway, should you be so inclined, feel free to add your own extremities via the comments box!

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2024 in Retrospect

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical, Cardiff, Maynooth with tags , , , , , on December 31, 2024 by telescoper 
What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from.

T. S. Eliot, from Little Gidding, the last of the Four Quartets.

I wasn’t really planning on posting a retrospective of the year 2024, but the rain is pouring down outside so I’ve decided to use up a bit of time before going out in the hope that the rain stops.

The past year has been very busy with significant life events. One particular highlight has to be a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime trip to Sydney in February. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to visit Australia again, but if I do I’ll take it! Shortly after returning from that trip I went back to Barcelona until the summer, leaving briefly for visits to Rome (Euclid Consortium Meeting), Valencia (Department Colloquium), Newcastle (to do a PhD examination) and Oxford (to give the inaugural Pride talk at the Department of Physics).

Unfortunately, at that point my laptop gave up the ghost so I had to come back to Maynooth a little earlier than planned to salvage what was on it and get a new one. And so ended my sabbatical. I’d like to take the opportunity again to thank everyone at the Universities of Barcelona and Sydney for making me feel so welcome and, of course, to Maynooth for granting me a full-year sabbatical in the first place.

As well as giving me some time for my own research, the year saw significant progress with the Open Journal of Astrophysics, both in terms of numbers of papers published (120 in 2024) but also some much-needed work on automation and an increase in the size of the Editorial Board. It’s hard to predict what will happen in 2025, but I’m glad that a significant number of members of the astrophysics community seem to be regarding OJAp as a viable avenue for communicating their results.

I will also mention – for those that care – that the Open Journal of Astrophysics is now listed in Scopus, but all the numbers they have published about the journal are inaccurate. I have spent months trying to get them to correct the figures but, although they have admitted errors, they have failed to do so. My next step will be to take legal action against Scopus (which is based in The Netherlands) under the Dutch Civil Code.

The big event workwise at Maynooth was the merger of the Departments of Theoretical Physics and Experimental Physics into a single Department of Physics. So far this has been largely paper exercise. What will result from it in the long term remains to be seen. I was given two new modules to teach last Semester and have another new one next Semester (as well as one I’ve done before). Although this made for a heavy workload, it wasn’t as bad as what happened after the only other sabbatical I’ve had in my career. I got a one Semester sabbatical when I was at Nottingham, but the Department simply moved my first-semester teaching to the second semester in addition to what had already been allocated for the second, so I had a double teaching load when I got back!

There has been a significant change in my personal circumstances too. During 2024 I finally completed the sale of my former home in Pontcanna, Cardiff. I had intended to do this years ago, but the pandemic and subsequent workload issues made it difficult to travel and sort this matter out. In the meantime bought my house in Maynooth with a mortage so I owned two properties, one of which was empty for much of the time. After much stopping and starting, and being badly let down by more than one prospective buyer, the Cardiff house is now sold. I now feel much less delocalised. I also felt very rich when the proceeds hit my bank account, but only briefly. I used a big chunk to pay off my mortgage and put the rest into fixed-term investments for retirement.

Anyway, writing about Sydney reminded me that there are parts of the world in which it is 2025 already, so let me end with a “Happy New Year” and a few interesting numerological facts about the number 2025:

P.S. It’s still raining.

P.P.S. Athbhliain faoi shéan agus faoi mhaise daoibh! 

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Sydney looking back

Posted in Biographical with tags , , , , on March 5, 2024 by telescoper

I am a bit jet-lagged, and don’t have the energy for anything too strenuous, so I thought I’d post a couple of reflections of my time in Sydney. Actually I wrote this piece yesterday but was so tired I forgot to post it!

The first thing I should say is that Sydney is a very fine city. I really enjoyed my time there. Although I had four weeks there are still many things I didn’t get to do. Had I been on holiday for a month I might have seen more, but I was actually working a lot of the time. Perhaps I’ll go back when I’ve retired! It was a last-minute decision to go, actually. I only decided in January to make the trip. Had I had more time to plan things I would have been more organized.

One issue with Sydney is that it is very expensive. That goes for food and drink as well as accommodation. I might have found a cheaper place to stay had I looked earlier, of course, but everyone there told me it was always difficult to find rental properties. A while ago I read a story about how and why many young Irish people are moving to Australia. Sydney is even more expensive than Dublin to live in, and there’s just as much difficulty in finding somewhere to rent. On the other hand, in Australia there is a lot more sunshine than in Ireland!

Sydney is also very cosmopolitan and culturally diverse. The most obvious sign of this is the huge range of different cuisines. I rented an apartment with a kitchen rather than a hotel room because I was there for so long that I thought I would do a significant amount of cooking. As it turned out, though, there were many relatively inexpensive eateries nearby, some of them very good indeed, so I didn’t cook all that much.

A Cockatoo or Three

Another thing that struck me at first was the huge difference in flora and fauna, especially the birds. I’ve mentioned some of them before but I should say something about the cockatoos. These are far more numerous than I’d imagined and are rather gregarious, often swooping around in large flocks. They are cute but somewhat deranged creatures, often very noisy and sometimes downright destructive. You don’t want to let one into your house. They are naturally inquisitive and use their strong beaks and dextrous claws to dismantle things. Like all indigenous birds, cockatoos are protected by law. I rather think they are aware of this immunity as they are very cheeky. Strange as they are, I got used to their squawking and screeching. I miss them a bit already.

Anyway, I’m now pretty much recovered from the jet lag – just in time for another flight. It’s going to be a busy ten days or so before I return to Barcelona. A student of mine has their viva examination next week. Although at Maynooth University the supervisor doesn’t attend these examinations, I feel I should be on hand to buy champagne and offer congratulations. And talking of congratulations, I just found out this morning that, after a number of postdoctoral positions, a former PhD student of mine has joined the staff at a UK university. I’m very happy about that – what special delight you feel when you hear one of your former PhD students has got a permanent job!

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Homeward Bound

Posted in Biographical with tags , , on March 3, 2024 by telescoper
The Blue Mountains

Here I am in Abu Dhabi airport, about 2/3 of the way home from Sydney, with just enough time for a quick post. We took off about 4pm Sydney time and I had a window seat with a good view of take-off and parts of Australia, including the famous Blue Mountains just to the West of Sydney, but it soon got dark. My flight leaves Abu Dhabi at 2.20am local time and arrives in Dublin at 6.30am local time, so most of this will be in darkness too!

Anyway, farewell Sydney! I’ve enjoyed being in you!

Update: After some minor excitement caused by my having a nosebleed on the plane, I made it back to Dublin in one piece and on time, though there was a long delay on the bus from the Airport owing to an ‘incident’ on the M1 near the airport, so I was about an hour later than expected getting home. I won’t be here for long before I jet off again, but I do need a little time to rest.

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Weather Conditions

Posted in Biographical, LGBTQ+, Maynooth with tags , , , , on March 2, 2024 by telescoper

This is my last full day in Sydney and – by sheer coincidence – it happens to be Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras! I will probably go out later to watch some of the fun, although it seems it’s very likely to rain on the Parade; it’s very overcast this morning, although the temperature is still 24°C.

Talking of the weather, I noticed on social media that yesterday it snowed in Maynooth (and elsewhere in Ireland). The contrast with what I’ve been experiencing in Sydney will be rather extreme:

St Patrick’s House, Maynooth
St Sydney’s Opera House

I was a bit concerned that the snow might cause problems with my return flight and/or onward transport, but I’m told that it was soon washed away by rain.

I’ll only be making a brief stop in Maynooth before travelling to (different) warmer climes, of which more in due course.

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Western Sydney

Posted in Biographical, Open Access with tags , , , , , , on February 26, 2024 by telescoper

Today I made a journey by train to Kingswood, a suburb of Sydney which is the location of one of the campuses of Western Sydney University (WSU). The journey of about 50 km takes about an hour on the stopping train (T1) from Sydney Central Station. I was intrigued that the final destination for the train I got was Emu Plains; I had visions of vast herds of Emus gathered there, but I had to get off the stop before the terminus so never saw them. There’s about a 20-minute walk to the campus from Kingswood Station. It was quite warm so I was grateful when one of my hosts offered me a lift back to Kingswood Station at the end of my visit.

The reason for my visit was set another seminar about Open Access Publishing in Astrophysics. Here are the slides:

Although I’ve given a talk based on more-or-less the same slides recently, it always comes out slightly different. There was a bigger audience than I expected in the room, supplemented by even more on Zoom. The topic of Open Access Publishing does seem to be pretty hot these days in Australia and there was quite a lively discussion. I have a feeling we might have a manuscript or two submitted from WSU before too long.

Kingswood is a far less affluent area than where I am staying in Ultimo, and WSU is an institution that’s very different from the University of Sydney itself, but it was good to see another side of the city, geographically as well as socially. Thank you to everyone who attended and, especially, to Luke Barnes for inviting me and for lunch and coffee!

On the train back into Sydney I noticed that trains going in the opposite direction where crammed full, with (mostly) teenage girls heading to Olympic Park for a Taylor Swift concert. My train, heading into Sydney was fairly empty by contrast and the journey back pleasant enough.

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A Manly Excursion

Posted in Architecture, Biographical with tags , , , , , on February 25, 2024 by telescoper

I realized this morning, with a shock, that I only have one more week in Sydney so I decided to cross off another of my things to do by taking the ferry (F1) from Circular Quay to Manly, so I could have a view of the Pacific Ocean. The most fun was on the way back, when a yacht race was under way in Sydney Harbour. Lots of small boats had come out to get a good view, many of them right in the ferry path. An officer of the Harbour Police on a jet ski was buzzing around politely inviting the offenders to get out of the way. At one point a quite large boat came right across our bow and the captain of the ferry had to sound the alarm. No harm was done, but that clown could have caused a serious accident.

Anyway, there are lots of Manly things in Manly: a Manly Wharf, Manly Beach, a Manly Bank, Manly Pharmacy and, as you can see in one picture, Manly Paradise; there’s even, as pointed out to me by Richard Easther, Manly Astrophysics. I only stayed long enough to have a Manly beer and some Manly Fish & Chips before heading back to Circular Quay.

Here are some snaps.

Anyway, here are a few little videos from my instagram page:

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The Hottest Day

Posted in Biographical with tags , , , on February 23, 2024 by telescoper

Today has been the hottest day of my visit to Sydney (so far). It was already 30°C by 11am, and got warmer as the day went on, reaching 35°C by 3pm, reaching a peak of almost 37°C by 4 o’clock. I was struggling a bit by then, and decided to go back to my air-conditioned apartment for a rest. I got there just before the lovely rain came; no thunder or lightning today though.

I was prepared for the high temperatures here, but at this time of year it is very humid which I find much more difficult to deal with. The hottest place I have ever been in was Aswan in Egypt, where it was 48°C in the shade, but it was very dry and I didn’t find it all that troublesome. I was careful to drink plenty of water, as I could feel myself evaporating, but other than that it wasn’t all that bad. Years ago I went to New Orleans where the temperature was barely 30°C but the humidity so oppressive I could barely function at all, even at night.

Anyway, out of curiosity, I googled the highest temperature ever recorded in Sydney, which turns out to have been recorded at Penrith with a high of 48.9 °C (120 °F) on 4 January 2020. Yikes! Coincidentally, I am going to Penrith on Monday to give a talk at Western Sydney University. The forecast for there and then is a mere 28°C…

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A Sunny Afternoon in the Botanic Gardens

Posted in Biographical with tags , , , on February 17, 2024 by telescoper

I took a stroll this afternoon in Sydney’s splendid Royal Botanic Garden. It was quite warm, so I soon had to retreat into a bar for some light refreshment, but not before I took a few snaps. The last one, incidentally, is of a wedding ceremony…

Two of the pictures show examples of Australian birds that are common in Sydney. The Australian White Ibis – called “Bin Chickens” because of their scavenging habits – look rather elegant from a distance but close up look rather manky. The smaller bird on the arm of the bench is a Noisy Miner. These are aggressively territorial, rather like the Eurasian Robin familiar to folk in the Northern hemisphere. They are also rather noisy. The other common native bird I see frequently is the Cockatoo. I’ll do a separate post about these very peculiar creatures when I get some decent pictures.

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Asbestos in the Park

Posted in Biographical, LGBTQ+ with tags , , , on February 15, 2024 by telescoper

Time, I think, a bit of local news. There’s an ongoing asbestos crisis not only in Sydney but across all New South Wales. It seems that the mulch that has been used in many public parks, school grounds and even a hospital garden is contaminated with asbestos. One affected site is Victoria Park, which I walk through from my flat to the University. At least the park is still open, so you can walk on the paths and sit on the lawns, but all areas with mulch are fenced off:

As it happens, Victoria Park was to be used for one of the events planned for Sydney Mardi Gras, which starts today*, but that particular event has been cancelled though many others are unaffected.

The contaminated mulch at all the sites affected was supplied by the same company, Greenlife Resource Recovery. I hope they have to foot the bill for clearing it all up!

*It is, of course, a complete coincidence that this LGBT festival coincides with my stay in Sydney…

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