What's an Astronomer's favourite Birthday Gift?
As you can see, we woke up this morning, to find that the Space Telescope Science Institute — the organisation running the world’s most famous telescope, Hubble — have sent out their approval and denial letters for the next cycle of observations with the Telescope. Our proposal for observing the Voorwerp (led by Principal Investigator Bill Keel) was approved for 7 orbits. Getting time on HST is hard at the best of times, and this time round was particularly difficult. Hubble is currently waiting for a visit from astronauts to carry out a desperately needed set of repairs and upgrades, and every astronomer in the world wanted to be first in the queue once it’s back on top form. To give you an idea, more than 20,000 orbits were requested when there were only 3,500 of them to go round – and 7 of them now belong to Galaxy Zoo.
So when will you see a gorgeous Hubble image of the Voorwerp? Not for a while yet. First, the Space Shuttle has to successfully complete its final service mission to repair the Hubble and install new instruments. This is currently scheduled for October 8, 2008. After all the repairs are done and the spacecraft has been checked out thoroughly, we then have to wait for the Voorwerp to actually be visible on the sky for Hubble. All this will take at least several months more. And of course once the data is taken, we then have to reduce it first to produce a picture. Still, it will be a wonderful opportunity for us to learn more about what the Voorwerp is.
By coincidence, today’s the birthday of the Voorwerp’s discover. Happy birthday, Hanny – and enjoy your present from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Galaxy Zoo 
Wonderful news !
Congratulations all !
Oh wow, thats so cool! Congrats!
Brilliant, and brilliant present for Hanny….coincidence?
It’s Hanny’s Voorwerp, but we all feel a little paternal
(or maternal) about it. Bill, here’s hoping that when the revolutions come around everything works perfectly.
And a big hurrah for citizen science.
Not everyone needs a PHD in a subject to contribute to
the advancement of that subject. Thanks to Hanny for noticing the strange object and calling attention to it.
garrett_cw
Yes so cool and what perfect timing : )
This is wonderful news. It reflects the importance placed by the scientific community on the GZ project. Congratulations to Hanny, the TEAM and all Zooists. May the Zoo spirit flourish forever more !
Yes, very nice to wake up this morning with that e-mail! Thanks for posting this, Kevin and Chris. It was very early when I read it, but immidiatly awake and even more cheerful and wanted to tell everyone I know and such! 😀
And thanks again for all the messages as well! 😉
Happy birthday to you
From the Voorwerp and Zoo!
Awesome news congats to everyone.
Happy Birthday and CONGRATS!!!
Well if this is what citizen science can achieve – long may it continue. Well done everyone! Great news.:0)
Fantastic news and a fantastic birthday present for Hanny.
It is really wonderful news. Congratulations to Hanny, the TEAM and all Zooists.
happy birthday
happy birthdayfrom deepthi
Congratulations to Hanny and Serendipity- uitstekend.
If anyone’s wondering why you can’t get onto the forum, there’s been a “server outage” for several websites. Zookeeper Phil’s colleagues in the USA are doing their best to get it back and we should have our forum back later today!
Perhaps there was just too much partying . . .
Congratulations to Hanny, the TEAM and everyone!
It is really wonderful news. This actually reflects the importance placed by the scientific community on the Galaxy Zoo Project. May the spirit of the ZOO advance and flourish forever more !
cool! happy birthday, hanny! congrats to all!
which instrument did you request? will it be the new wide-field 3 camera?
What a wonderful birthday gift for Hanny. And what great tribute to everyone here at Galaxy Zoo!;)
😀 Wendy! 😀
On the subject of birthdays, happy birthday to Waveney of the Mergers! Many happy returns, and may we all be back in the Cafe to post birthday wishes there very soon.
They have requested: the ACS/WFC (2 different filters), the new WFC3 Camera (3 different filters) and the STIS (2 Grisms). Its amazing what you can find if you look…!
Happy Birthday Hanny, and congratulations, and thank you for noticing that blue blob.
Congratulations Hanny! Thi is continuing proof that ‘amateur’ astronomers can still play a vital role in astronomical research!
Rick Hill