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SETI
- Allen Telescope Array
- Optical SETI
- Interstellar Message Construction
- Project Phoenix 1995-2004
- Background Science
- History of SETI
- Center for SETI Research Team
- Other people doing SETI
- Hollywood's View of SETI
Day and Night
by Tom Kilsdonk, Phoenix Team Software Engineer
Like all the members of the Phoenix team, I lead a double life.
During the day, I make changes to the New Search System's control software, adding enhancements and fixing bugs, in an ongoing effort to make the system run as smoothly as possible. I also help run equipment tests, to verify that both hardware and software are behaving as expected.
At night, I'm part of the first observing shift. We normally take over the Arecibo telescope around 5 - 6 p.m. I help prepare the equipment for observing; take my turn in the observer's chair, logging details of the star observations as they occur; and make note of any software changes that will need to be made the next day. Officially, I'm off shift at 10 p.m., but during these first few nights of observing, Jane Jordan and I are splitting the night, "riding shotgun" to provide software support as needed.
We have a team joke: a "SETI day off" means you only have to work during the day. Since this double life eventually takes its toll, Peter Backus, our Observing Programs Manager, has wisely scheduled observing nights only during the week, to give us a chance to regroup on the weekend before the next week's observing begins again.
This double life can be hard sometimes, and it's easy to get caught up in all the concerns that must be addressed in order to keep an experiment like this going. But it's also a rare privilege, to be allowed to work on a project that just might answer one of the biggest questions around: Are we alone in the universe?