Welcome, I'm a Research Astronomer at the
Anglo-Australian
Observatory working in the field of observational cosmology. In particular
I'm using quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) to study large-scale structure in
the Universe, and using various aspects of gravitational lensing to measure
large-scale structure and cosmological parameters. I also have an interest
in trying to understand the physics of QSOs and active-galactic nuclei
(AGN).
I'm always
working
hard!
Previously I was at the Imperial College
of Science Technology and Medicine and the University
of Durham
My Research
The
2-degree Field QSO Redshift Survey
The 2-degree Field (2dF) QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ) is a project to obtain
redshifts for 25000 QSOs using the 2-degree
Field multi-fibre spectroscopic facility at the Anglo-Australian
Telescope (AAT) (shown right). The survey will cover two 75° ×
5° declination strips, one across the South Galactic Pole and the other
in an equatorial region across the North Galactic cap. The QSOs are colour
selected from UK Schmidt Telescope
(UKST) photographic plates scanned using the Automatic
Plate measurement (APM) facility at the
Cambridge
Astronomical Survey Unit (formerly at the Royal Greenwich Observatory).
To select the QSOs we use multi-colour information from UV, blue and red
photographic plates (u, bJ, r) over the magnitude range 18.25
< bJ < 21. A separate program to observe the brighter
QSOs has been carried using the 6-degree Field instrument on the UKST.
The main scientific aims of the survey are:
-
To measure the power spectrum of density fluctuations from non-linear scales
(<10h-1Mpc) to scales comparable to those probed by COBE
(~1000h-1Mpc).
-
To obtain measures of the density parameter, and biasing from the evolution
of QSO clustering.
-
To estimate the cosmological constant, from geometric tests.
More information on the project can be found on the 2dF
QSO Survey Home Page.
The Survey is now complete and contains redshifts for over 23000 QSOs.
The above plot shows the distribution of QSOs discovered. For
more pretty pictures see the 2QZ home
page. The survey reaches depths of 3000h-1Mpc, Or 10000000000
light years (yep, that's quite a long way away!). if you use your imagination
a little you can even see some structure in the distribution of objects
observed.
Private information for members of the 2dF QSO Redshift Survey team
is stored here.
The SDSS-2dF Faint QSO Survey
This is a new program to combine Sloan Digital
Sky Survey imaging and 2dF spectroscopy to carry out a new faint (g<22)
QSO survey. More here soon....
Photometric Sequences for Wide-Field Surveys
As part of the 2dF QSO survey project we have obtained deep CCD
photometric sequences in a large number of UKST fields at high galactic
latitudes. This data
is
available to the astronomical community.
Publications
Follow this link for a list of currently available publications.
You can also search for me at ADS
or astro-ph.
My Role at the AAO
As well as my astronomical research I also have the following roles:
-
AAT scheduler
-
AAT service program coordinator
-
FMOS/Echidna - AAO project astronomer
-
CCD/Detector instrument scientist
-
Support astronomer (2dF/IRIS2/SPIRAL)
Other Stuff
My bookmarks
Photo Gallery
mail : scroom@aaoepp.aao.gov.au
