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And for people who are listening who are trying to imagine, you know what does this take, how do you get involved--can you describe your setup?[qh]
給那些正在收聽、正在想象的聽眾，告訴他們這需要什么，你是如何參與的--能描述一下你的配置嗎？[qh]
Like, say it's a Tuesday night and you're going out to observe.[qh]
比如，假設今天是周二晚上，你要出去觀察。[qh]
What does your equipment look like? How long does it take? You know, what does it involve?[qh]
你需要哪些設備？要花多長時間？包括什么內容？[qh]
So, I want to start by saying that when I talk a bit about my setup, it can sound a little bit intimidating.[qh]
首先我要說，提到配置時，聽起來可能會有點嚇人。[qh]
But I do want to just highlight that there are actually these incredible instruments out there that are now much more affordable--what people call electronically assisted astronomy, where you're really using a camera to look at the sky.[qh]
但我想強調的是，現在確實有一些令人難以置信的儀器，它們現在更便宜了--人們稱之為電子輔助天文學，你用相機就能觀測天空。[qh]
The camera has better eyes than we do and can do some of that integrating.[qh]
這種相機的視力比我們好，可以進行一些整合。[qh]
So, one that's really popular right now--and I swear nobody's paying me to say this, it's just true--there's a company called ZWO that has made something called the Seestar S50, and it's a $500 instrument.[qh]
所以，現在非常流行的一個--我發誓沒有人給我廣告費，這是事實--有一家名為ZWO的公司制造了一款名為Seestar S50的設備，它售價500美元。[qh]
And basically it is a fifty Millimeter Refractor Telescope that must be like three pounds, for I can just carry it under my arm.[qh]
基本上，它是一個50毫米的折射望遠鏡，大概有3磅重，我能直接把它夾在腋下。[qh]
This is a podcast so people can't see me lift my arms, but it's very easy to carry around.[qh]
這是播客節目，聽眾看不到我舉起手臂，但它很容易攜帶。[qh]
You connect it with your mobile device and then it will mostly do the rest.[qh]
你把它和你的移動設備連接起來，然后它就會完成大部分的工作。[qh]
You don't really have to know anything about astronomy in order to use it.[qh]
你不一定要知道天文學的任何知識才能使用它。[qh]
I have one of those. So, that's one setup that I have.[qh]
我有一個這樣的設備，這是我配置里的一樣。[qh]
I actually have two more. They all have names, by the way.[qh]
其實我還有另外兩樣，它們還都有名字呢。[qh]
So, the one I'm going to tell you about is called Chucky, and Chucky is a sixty one Millimeter refractor, so it's also very lightweight.[qh]
接下來我要給你們講的是Chucky，Chucky是一個61毫米的折射鏡，它也很輕便。[qh]
It's on a ZWO AM5 mount.[qh]
它安裝在ZWO AM5的底架上。[qh]
It's basically a camera lens, like a telescope is a very fancy camera lens.[qh]
它相當于一個相機鏡頭，正如望遠鏡也是非常奇特的相機鏡頭。[qh]
And then I have a little computer that I use to pick out where I want the mount to go.[qh]
然后我還有一臺小電腦，我用它來選擇適合的底架位置。[qh]
And it actually feeds me the images, and then at the back of the telescope I have a special astronomy camera that's designed specifically for capturing astronomical images.[qh]
它會給我提供圖像，在望遠鏡后面，我有一個專門為捕捉天文圖像而設計的特殊天文相機。[qh]
So that's Chucky, and that's my big astrophotography setup.[qh]
這就是Chucky，它是我最大的天文攝影裝置。[qh]
Cool, cool.[qh]
太酷了。[qh]
So, okay, you spend your days thinking about space in particle physics, and then you come home and you spend your evenings thinking about space and looking at space.[qh]
那你白天在粒子物理學領域思考太空，然后回家，晚上你思考的是太空，觀察太空。[qh]
Don't you ever get sick of space?[qh]
你從來沒有厭倦過太空嗎？[qh]
One of the things that happens after you get the images is that you actually have to clean them up.[qh]
在你得到這些圖片后，有一件事必須做，你得清理它們。[qh]
So, there is the fun part: going outside and setting up the telescope.[qh]
有趣的是：走出家門，架起望遠鏡。[qh]
I don't know, maybe my spouse, who actually is the one who carries it outside, doesn't feel like that's the fun part.[qh]
不知道，也許幫我把設備都背到戶外的配偶并不覺得這部分有趣吧。[qh]
Because I'm disabled I can't carry it myself, so he has to help me.[qh]
因為我是殘疾人，我沒法自己背，所以他必須幫助我。[qh]
But it's fun to kind of sit there and watch the image live-capture.[qh]
但坐在那里觀看現場拍攝的圖像是一件有趣的事情。[qh]
So that part is fun.[qh]
所以這部分很有趣。[qh]
But then on the other end, if I really want to make the colors pop and really get all of the image out in a way that's legible to me, I have to do data processing.[qh]
但另一方面，如果我真的想讓顏色突出，真正以一種我能讀懂的方式把所有的圖像都呈現出來，我就得進行數據處理。[qh]
And so the other day I was doing some data processing, and one of the things you have to do is not just take the images of whatever object you're trying to look at, you also have to take what are called Darks and Bias and light frames, and these are all to help you calibrate.[qh]
前幾天我在做一些數據處理，你要做的事不僅僅是拍攝你想看的任何物體的圖像，你還必須拍攝所謂的暗流、本底和光框，這些都是為了幫助你校準。[qh]
Any error that your camera might be introducing, like any Quantum effects, any effects from the heating of the camera, all of these kinds of things.[qh]
相機可能引入的任何誤差，就像任何量子效果，任何來自相機加熱的效果，所有這些東西。[qh]
And I messed up my darks the other night.[qh]
有天晚上我把暗流給搞砸了。[qh]
And so, I put everything in, my computer's running it, it's like taking up 100 gigs of my hard drive at once.[qh]
我把所有東西都放進去了，我的電腦在運行，好像一次性占用了我硬盤上的100G空間。[qh]
And then on the other end there's this awful image with this giant horizontal streak in the middle of it.[qh]
然后在另一端出現了一張很爛的圖片，中間有一條巨大的水平條紋。[qh]
And I had spent like an hour on this and I just hadn't noticed that the darks had this error in them.[qh]
我為這事兒花了大概一個小時，我沒注意到暗流出現了這個錯誤。[qh]
It was like, why did I take the worst part of my job that I don't have to do on a daily basis and make it my hobby?[qh]
這就像，為什么我要把工作中最糟糕的那部分--我不需要每天都去做--變成我的愛好？[qh]
That's a lingering question.[qh]
這是一個揮之不去的問題。[qh]
I mean, I will say, from a professional standpoint, it's a really important reminder of the significance of the work that goes into telescope building.[qh]
我的意思是，從專業的角度來看，我覺得這是一個非常重要的提醒，讓人們意識到建造望遠鏡工作的重要性。[qh]
There is this problem in the astronomy community that instrument builders tend to be looked down upon as technicians who are not, quote, real astronomers, which is ridiculous, and I'm pretty sensitized to this issue because two of my best friends are telescope builders.[qh]
在天文學領域有一個問題，儀器建造者往往會被輕視為不是“真正的天文學家”的技術人員，這很荒謬，我對這個問題非常敏感，因為我的兩個最好的朋友是望遠鏡建造者。[qh]
So one, I think that this helps ground me in understanding why their work is important.[qh]
首先，它幫我理解了為什么他們的工作很重要。[qh]
And then it also helps ground me in understanding the people who are actually working with data and doing data analysis.[qh]
其次，它還幫我了解了那些真正在處理數據和進行數據分析的人。[qh]
That is hard work and there's a lot of human choice that goes into it.[qh]
這是一項艱苦的工作，其中涉及到很多人為的選擇。[qh]
There's a lot of pieces to it that I think you can forget about when it's not part of your daily work, and so this has been a good reminder for me.[qh]
當它不是你日常工作的一部分時，你可能會忘掉很多細節，所以這對我來說是一個很好的提醒。[qh]
Also, we're in an awful political moment in so many different ways.[qh]
此外，從很多方面來看，我們正處于一個可怕的政治時刻。[qh]
So many people are living in distressed conditions right now, and I think for me this has been a good way to keep myself grounded.[qh]
現在有很多人生活在困境中，我認為對我來說這是讓自己腳踏實地的好方法。[qh]
As my mom has reminded me, there's a universe beyond the bad things that are happening to us.[qh]
正如我媽媽提醒我的那樣，除了發生在我們身上的壞事之外，外面還有一個浩瀚的宇宙。[qh]
