Vale Roger Brownlee

We were devastated to hear about Roger's sudden and untimely passing in late January.

Here is the order of service from his funeral

Club York - Revamped

We gathered at the renovated Club York restaurant where the Tabou has morphed into the MEZA Bar and Grill. A totally new luxurious look - but more or less the same menu - without the puns!

A big thank you to our new co-ordinator Laurie Wilson, who has taken over the role after many years of sterling service from Michael Ryan. 

There were almost as many apologies this time as there were acceptances - but those present had a great time reminiscing about past glories, in between the inevitable organ recitals. Update on Don Melley - he is now comfortably ensconced in a retirement facility in Normanhurst - together with his wife Maureen. Too far away and too complicated for him to join us on this occasion.

More photos here

Vale Derek Nelson

 Sad News

See Derek's Funeral

Libation Day 2025

We came together on 2nd April 2025 at the Royal Hotel Darlington, to mourn the passing of Dave Crawford, to check who is still standing - and to renew the acquaintance of some former colleagues.

See the detailed photos here.

If you haven't already done so, you might find some interesting snippets in two new tabs that have been added over the last few months:

Dramatis Personae

and

Interesting papers / articles

Did anyone know that McCusker had been nominated for the Nobel Prize?

Feel free to suggest further items that you would like included in these areas or post some comments

Vale David Crawford

Emeritus Professor Anne Green has provided a tribute to David - as well as details of the memorial service in his honour. 

Club York Revisited - October 16, 2024

The long list of reunions grows ever longer - see right sidebar ->

This time it was back to the Club York, where we were treated once again to the extensive menu at the Zabou restaurant - and their puns!

  
Besides the usual collection of suspects attending - and apologies - we welcomed Mark Diesendorf to our gathering. Mark was in the class of 1963, together with Andy B,  Leo G, Tony P,  Seet Siok Hoon and about 25 others. He worked in Theoretical Physics, before transitioning to a career in sustainable development and renewable energy, with a number of published books. Check him out here!

The photographic record of the meeting can be seen here

 

 

Centenary of the Physics Building

Construction of the "new" Physics building began in 1924. To mark the occasion of its 100th birthday, the School of Physics invited alumni to an event which included presentations by various current staff and students, as well as a tour of the old and new parts of the building.

Several cosmic greys were observed in attendance - including Andrew Fisher, Paul Bookalil and Leo Goorevich. Also several contemporary graduates of other departments - including Mark Diesendorf, Ferg Brand and Bob Hewitt.

The school put out a commemorative booklet, which I have scanned and which can be seen by clicking on Centenary booklet. I'm sure the school will be happy to send you an original should you be interested.

I also took some photos of the tour as well as some parts of the old building - these can be seen in our Gallery or by clicking on 2024 tour of Physics Building

I was shocked at what had been done to "our corridor" and West Lab. No natural light - just solid doors and walls.

and the entrance to Murray / Mac's offices

but was relieved that the entrance to Room 340 was more or less intact.

The photo-molecular efect

 No, we are not about to rehash the photo-electric effect and its explanation by the great Albert Einstein. This photon bombardment effect was of course disgracefully his only Nobel Prize award. In case you (and I) haven't been keeping up to date, here is a brief heads up on the now "classical" physics of the different photo-molecular effect, which concerns another mechanism contributing to evaporation. 

This discovery is actually profound with its applications to cloud physics and desalination. 

I admit I came across this somewhat accidentally, despite having a continuing interest in cloud physics (not cloud chambers!), because of the complete failure of climate modelling (in particular cloud formation) used in the biggest financial scam of our times. Check your electricity bills! As an aside, hopefully Cosgrays must also have been following the work on cosmic rays and the application to cloud physics by Henrik Svensmark. Internet searches can provide further information if interested.

Specifically on the recent discovery at MIT of the photo-molecular effect, I'll attach some quick read cut/paste text below FYI. 

Further, here is a nice video (with an advert) :

https://youtu.be/17Y82tJDk2o

--TonyP

=============

Photomolecular effect: Visible light interaction with air–water interface

Guangxin Lv, Yaodong Tu, James H. Zhang, and Gang Chen

Contributed by Gang Chen; received November 27, 2023; accepted March 8, 2024; reviewed by Xiulin Ruan and Shannon K. Yee April 23, 2024

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2320844121

We use 14 different experiments to demonstrate the existence of the photomolecular effect: photons in the visible spectrum cleave off water clusters from air–water interfaces. We use laser to study single air–water interfaces and show polarization, angle of incidence, and wavelength dependent responses, peaking at green where bulk water does not absorb. Raman and infrared absorption spectra and temperature distribution in air show the existence of water clusters under light. We suggest the photomolecular effect provides a mechanism to resolve the long-standing puzzle of larger measured solar absorptance of clouds than theoretical predictions based on bulk water optical constants and demonstrate that visible light can heat up clouds. Our work suggests that photomolecular evaporation is prevalent in nature.

The astonishing new discovery could have a wide range of significant implications. It could help explain mysterious measurements over the years of how sunlight affects clouds, and therefore affect calculations of the effects of climate change on cloud cover and precipitation. It could also lead to new ways of designing industrial processes such as solar-powered desalination or drying of materials.

Abstract:

Although water is almost transparent to visible light, we demonstrate that the air–water interface interacts strongly with visible light via what we hypothesize as the photomolecular effect. In this effect, transverse-magnetic polarized photons cleave off water clusters from the air–water interface. We use 14 different experiments to demonstrate the existence of this effect and its dependence on the wavelength, incident angle, and polarization of visible light. We further demonstrate that visible light heats up thin fogs, suggesting that this process can impact weather, climate, and the earth’s water cycle and that it provides a mechanism to resolve the long-standing puzzle of larger measured clouds absorption to solar radiation than theory could predict based on bulk water optical constants. Our study suggests that the photomolecular effect should happen widely in nature, from clouds to fogs, ocean to soil surfaces, and plant transpiration and can also lead to applications in energy and clean water.

Cosmic Greys Gather at the Royal Hotel - April 9th 2024

One of the best attended gatherings of Cosmic Greys enjoyed a sumptuous lunch at the Royal Hotel in Darlington - on the fringe of our old Alma Mater.

Can anyone suggest a collective noun for a group of Cosmic Greys?

This excellent turn out was due entirely to the excellent organisation skills of Mr Yan (aka Michael Ryan).

See all photos - from each of the attendant paparazzi - here

Nostalgic Trip for old CosGrays

 

Here's a nice nostalgic trip back to 1957 (*) for most of us via a link to one of my clouds, 

in case you don't have access to this article re CSIRO from "Physics Today":

https://1drv.ms/b/s!Av0GMewy3CFEojPa6RqHcvbBUVp2?e=zJhIHR

I could rave on about then and now, and how many things have declined ... but I won't without lubrication.

No mass mailing - hence it may be spotted when accessing the meetings photos.

--Tony P

(*) According to one list, "Diana" by Paul Anka is officially recorded as the biggest-selling single of 1957. 

Also "All Shook Up" - Elvis Presley and "Love Letters in the Sand" - Pat Boone etc

all ranked in the top 10 best-selling singles of the year - it all depends on what list is used.

I remember the competing 2GB & 2UE pop lists from the Milk Bar outside my old School.

In Case You Missed -- For SUGAR Fans

 Laurie W drew attention to the OMG particle (320EeV) and here is a runner-up (240EeV):

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03677-0

Reminder 10^18 eV = 1 EeV. Sorry to outsiders, but OLD SUGARites like to reminisce. Unfortunately I've forgotten what SUGAR max claim is on its closing, but in my day I used 67 events over 5EeV for direction analysis. Ah, such confidence in the accuracy of the chosen structure function in those days! Errors need expression in orders of magnitude. Say no more. 

Naturally, the article suggests unknown physical processes involved - they should leave that to the speculations of the OLD Cosgrays.

--TonyP

Lunch at the Club York - October 18, 2023

There was the usual group of familiar faces gathered at this venue - together with some uninvited guests.

See all photos here

Tony Parkinson (aka TonyP, aka ynotpark, aka Carl) has digitised his colour slides

Tony has provided a wondeful collection of photos from the 1965-68 era at our Narrabri field station. These can now be seen in the Gallery section of this blog. However if you want to see these in full high res, download the files from Tony's cloud - see link below.

"G’Day SUGARites and others

The recent post by LaurieW of the article in New Scientist about the OMG particle, omitting SUGAR, reminded me of something I hadn’t got around to concerning SUGAR. Hence this electronic missive. In recent times I managed to tick off an item in my bucket list, namely to digitize my old 35mm colour slides. Now you can see what’s coming. Yes, I have uploaded to my cloud a selection of nostalgic 1960s images relating to SUGAR. Well at least SUGARites may get slight amusement and others may yawn.

 I didn’t want to post to Leo’s CosRay blog in case too much storage was needed even using lower resolution, and also because heads up requires these multiple e-mails. The images are fairly high resolution 24-4800, and for those less geeky use the Windows Photo app to open and scroll through the jpegs. Without further ado, here’s the link: 

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/bivvfri4tnqjpua8qo7ev/h?dl=0&rlkey=nw73wqv96ssmdgoggky38p38c 

Enjoy the trip

TonyP"

Laurie Wilson finds news of the OMG particle found in Air Showers

Hi to all cosmic greys

For those still following the highest energy cosmic rays, I have attached an article which appeared in last week’s New Scientist on the “OMG particle”, reviewing recent discoveries and initiatives in studying the most energetic particles.  Unfortunately no mention of a certain Australian detector!

Read the document here

(Part of me kept thinking that this was a hoax, but then   ...  it was in the New Scientist, so it must be genuine...LG)

Cheers 

-Laurie 

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​History of the School of Physics

The current University of Sydney website contains a link to the history of the School of Physics. Of course there is an honourable mention of Cos Ray Department and our beloved CBA Mac. Unless you trawl the website (as I have been recently) you may not know it exists, so if you are interested, click here.

There is also a separate Biography of Harry Messel

Video concerning Research in the School of Physics.

Andy Bakich has obtained a promotional video about all the departments that were active at the time the film was made - 1977.

Click here to view the whole video (about 17 mins long).   There are two segments of interest to cosmic ray types - one is about the LAMBDA telescope (Lawrence Peak and Andy Bakich) and the other is about  SUGAR at Narrabri (including shots of Laurie Horton, Murray Winn, et al).

The youtube video has the following summary of the content:

Lunch at the Royal Hotel Darlington - March 28, 2023

Dr Mick did an excellent job, in the face of extreme provocation, to rustle up 10 hardy souls to make the super-human trek to Abercrombie Street on a grey and gloomy Tuesday.

Here is a selection of Notes from Mum:

• Just back from O/S on an all nighter. Falling asleep in middle of conversations. At this age recovery is greater than 24 hours. Regret missing the event.
• Apologies  M. I am on the sick list
• My apologies, will be with a golfing group in Canberra. Hopefully next time….
• My sincere apologies, but I sorry to  say that I won’t be attending on Tuesday. We’re leaving for a family holiday in Japan on Thursday-Friday and, after contacting Covid in December, it’s all I can do to get ready for the family holiday.
• Sorry I can't make it as I am overseas. Have a great time. Hope to see you in October.
• Sadly, I am now suffering from Parkinsons and have difficulty walking 

Your challenge is to match the correspondence with the correspondent. A free, highly prized, bottle of liquid scintillating fluid will be won by the first neatest and correct solution.

For those interested in inspecting how some of us have aged over the years, you are invited to visit the list of Reunions in the right sidebar of this blog, and in particular the page marked "2023".

Lunch at the Club York - October 12, 2022

With his customary combination of wit and persuasiveness, Dr Mick was able to entice 9 Cosmic Greys to emerge from hibernation and to re-unite for an enjoyable, casual meal at the Club York.

A photographic record of the proceedings can be found here

The discussions were wide-ranging: from a radical theory of Cosmology - to the merits of the Big Bang Theory (the TV show) - to an attempt to demonstrate that there are no extroverted physicists. None of these deep and meaningful issues were resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

Ice Cubes at the South Pole

 If you've seen the video, you have been keeping up-to-date.

I accidentally came upon this nice 30' video from 2017 produced by Univ Wisconsin-Madison (lead institution) about the IceCube Neutrino Observatory:

https://youtu.be/xuyTgAlPOGY

There's some corny dialogue, but plenty of useful info and passable graphics for retired Cosmic Ray physicists.

I was searching for info about the amazing Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Incredible sight and site. Plenty of useful videos available. In particular, I was interested in the details of the optical telescope at the south pole. It has a primary 10m mirror (!) and is dedicated to studies of the cosmic ray background. As an optical telescope fanatic and as a matter of interest it is a Gregorian off-axis microwave telescope on an altazimuth mount (same as equatorial mount at the south pole!). Again videos available, or consult Wikipedia.

As a matter of personal interest, when I was somewhat younger, I applied and was interviewed about joining the Australian Antarctic Division as a physicist.

 TonyP

Nostalgic return to Redfern

Sadly, the old Phillips Foote - scene of so many of our reunions, is no longer a viable venue. It has turned into a wine bar.

The organising committe was therefore faced with a difficult decision to find an alternative - and opted for the Royal Hotel in Abercrombie St Darlington. It appears to have won approval from the gathered multitude - see the results in the 2022 collection of photos in the right sidebar

Reposts TonyP III

 Repost 2022-03-09

Australian Radio Astronomy book link

For CosGrays who showed such interest in Dave Jauncey's recent video, and who (unlike specialists) may not have this (open-access) 2021 Springer book in their library, I have a link or two for you non-specialists. However, this is not a rehash, but is just a readable historical account of AU Radio Astronomy mainly 1945-1960 with a wealth of nice photos, including the famous CosGray Canberra resident! Further, the final section briefly runs over later Radio Astronomy developments. Springer links follow for pdf and epub versions:

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-319-91843-3.pdf

https://link.springer.com/download/epub/10.1007%2F978-3-319-91843-3.epub

or in case of problems search "Golden Years of Australian Astronomy" and goto the Springerlink.

Enjoy the nostalgia

TonyP

===================================================

Repost 2022-01-17

Scientists awake - the old pest has another video

You must stop that omicronitis and see this spectacular video on the Tonga earthquake:

https://youtu.be/zoMRwyNhqJ4

TonyP

==============================================

Repost 2022-01-05

CosGrays need brain food after 2 years of "it" 

Tired of hearing & reading about delta, omicron et al? Synchronization studies are worth your time:

https://youtu.be/t-_VPRCtiUg

and underneath some nice references on the subject to explore. o examination will be held (whew).

It reminded this old 'Gray about resonance, and the famous case of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse "Gallopin' Gertie" in 1940. You've probably seen the spectacular video of the bridge collapse, but a proper Engineering explanation is also worth your time:

https://youtu.be/mXTSnZgrfxM

Enjoy

TonyP

PS Considering structural disasters reminds Physicists of the Arecibo Radio Telescope (final) collapse a year ago, and an Engineering perspective follows, but resonance was not an issue (spectacular drone footage):

https://youtu.be/3oBCtTv6yOw

===================================

Repost 2021-09-18

Steven Weinberg obituary

Cozgrays

Just a brief bit of info especially as we don't meet face to face these days. I'm sure all are aware that Google (ugh) returns quite a few videos of the late Steven Weinberg, so I won't labour the point, and won't post on Leo-blog.

This particular video of a 2010 lecture for Google (ugh) is a long 71' and covers a wide field most of which should interest fellow old-timers re his book of essays "Lake Views" (refers Austin TX not my local lakes). If not interesting better call your GP for an appointment quickly!

 https://youtu.be/Gnk0rnBQrR0

Cheers

TonyP (one of 3 Tonys - the SA one & NOT in tedious lockdowns)

================================

Reposts TonyP II

 Repost 2021-02-13

CosGrays - Remembrance of Times Past

With a salute to Marcel Proust for the title. We oldtimers don't much think about fallout these days, but this is the subject of an interesting 13' video. Actually, it was the title "How Kodak Exposed The Atomic Bomb" which caught my attention, and Kodak itself is now mainly of historical interest. Is there a connection to CosGrays? Yes, it's on particles and physics, and some of us slaved developing cloud chamber films! Better catch it before the Big Tech Google censors decide what historical info is appropriate:

https://youtu.be/7pSqk-XV2QM

However, there's a catch on which you may be examined - listen carefully and find the howler at the start of the video.

Enjoy

Tony P

=================================

Repost 2021-01-10

Remember - back to Classical Mechanics

Absolutely fascinating video for Physicists. Watch carefully as the wing nut flips over.

https://youtu.be/1VPfZ_XzisU

The video is self-explanatory. There will be no examination on the topic - what a relief. It’s just Classical Mechanics, and I’m giving the “plot” away, just a consequence of the different moments of inertia on the three principal axes. The Russians tried to “hide” it! The tennis racquet trick jogged my memory – I did that with my old wooden "Pancho Gonzales" tennis racquet – I can actually remember that! Sadly I didn't stop to analyze. For those interested it's apparently only explained in the great textbook by the Russians Landau and Lifshitz on Classical Mechanics (they wrote a series of Physics books – Lev Landau is one of the greats of course). I have an extract available to any old masochists (via Academia.edu):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F4STGIy-VypV6vOj17nG0mSYN0FsA_Kn/view?usp=sharing

Enjoy 2021 - don't attempt to cross borders

TonyP

=========================================

Repost 2020-12-29

A Blast From The Past - For The Historical Record

While converting my archives to landfill, I came across a couple of vintage audio files, which were tape recorded from ABC Sydney radio 2FC. These have been digitized to elementary dual mono mp3 audio files for transmission to the blog and playable on any device. The file details and links follow.

McCusker 1975.mp3

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MHyquwetOfHR-0dluQ9SInTBVON47S_Y/view?usp=sharing

Program "Insight" with David Ellyard 2FC Sun 1045-1100 am ca 1975

McCusker 1985.mp3

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1239BMMfp2vFYQO1HxWhFExERaNl4EddE/view?usp=sharing

Program "In Person" with Robin Hughes 2FC Mon 0608-0635 pm 28 Jan 1985 (ca 3 min lost at start) [we mil types prefer 1808-1835]. 

Posted for possible interest of KosmicGGGrrrayers seeking an amusing nostalgic trip. Those around at the times will especially "appreciate" the changes over that strange decade. You need a full 45 minutes, and patience will be rewarded with a real "trip".

Enjoy

TonyP

=================================

Repost 2018-10-11

Addendum to Joe's Story - comment re Tom Playle

Thanks to Andy for those wonderful memories. It jogged my memories about Joe's mate Tom Playle. Tom and I shared at least one of those sojourns to Narrabri to tend SUGAR. Tom told me he was a London Bobby during WW2 and he married a nice Jewish girl (local Brit or refugee?). They had two daughters, and Tom hinted that they would be open to dating penniless physics students. That reminds of the countless hours spent lab demonstrating, first year lectures, tutorials, and exam paper marking for peanuts - a form of slavery. The postgrad CommSchol ended after 3 years. It didn't exactly inflate my bank balance for a home loan! Well, that jogged another memory of Tom. He indicated to me that someone was looking for an electronics wiz to "work on" the poker machines for the then huge South Sydney Juniors League Club - Tom was a member. I recall the Daily Mirror during its glory days in the late sixties writing about the activities of "colourful identities" who couldn't be named such as Mr Sin, Mr Big etc and who were connected to poker machines and other "activities". No way, Jose! I don't have a "therapist" so these are not "recovered" memories like recent events in the US. However, can someone amend and add to Tom Playle's bio?

--TonyP

=====================

Reposts TonyP I

 

Repost 2020-04-24

The Wuhan Blues II

You must need even more mental sustenance. How about the standard model and some speculations in current lecture style?

https://youtu.be/0T--WC4D1C0

Don't fall asleep

TonyP

PS solution to the maths puzzle might attract a free plane ticket to Wuhan, or maybe not ;-(

=========================================

Repost 2020-12-29

Wuhan Blues

Another busy day - you've done the crossword and finished the Sudoku. Now what?

Another lecture from Aunty Gladys? Good grief, there must be a better time-passer.

If you need to keep the old neurons firing, try this.

TonyP

===========================

Missing attendee under peer pressure has updated

Missing link has been unearthed in Adelaide. Defrosting is in progress.

Nothing much is known, except the specimen has an internet ID of "Carl Marks".

--TonyP, his doppelganger



No ageist comments thank you

New Historical Photos

Thanks to Mick Ryan for providing some ancient photos from around 1965-1966.
See them here:  Ancient Photos

Still waiting for Juris to unearth photos from early gatherings that he needs to dust off from his home cellar.

You may also be interested in the winner of the Attendance competition. See it here.

Attendance record

I have marked the roll for attendees at our annual re-unions at the Phillips Foote, using the photographic record as my vidence-based data source. click here

 Any challenges to the presented data - due perhaps to being in the servery, toilet or bar when the phographers were doing their work - will need to present documentary evidence - such as a note from Mum

You can see that the winner for the 21st century - and Teacher's Pet - is Judy Wand. Runners up include Andy Fisher and Mick Ryan, who may need to provide satisfactory explanation for their absence in 2002 and 2006 respectively.

Passing of Michael Hillas

Jim McCaughan has provided an obituary for Michael Hillas from Leeds University Physics Dept, who died in November. 

Michael Hillas Obituary

The authors were Alan Watson and Bob Reid. Bob ran the cloud chambers in Jamaica before Ron Wand inherited them and ran them on top of the 64S.

Alan Watson is still active but will retire at the end of this year.
You may recall that Murray Winn spent a valuable year there around mid seventies working on the Haverah Park array.

Two neutron stars meet and consummate

Two neutron stars meet and consummate:
http://iop.msgfocus.com/c/1H6i9TO51RZk6GOFLUvhrG8W

but for those old blokes with a short attention span enjoy the video:
https://youtu.be/x8nqkBD1wvE

--TonyP

Origin of cosmic rays at last?

Back in the early 1970s we thought that experiments like the SUGAR array were on the verge of establishing the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays.  Little did we know!

However, over the last 12 years the Pierre Auger Observatory has been accumulating data using a much bigger collecting area than SUGAR and have recently announced that there is a preferred direction, corresponding to the greatest concentration of galaxies in the night sky.

More information here

A few years ago they made then retracted a similar claim so let's see if it stands up.

- Laurie

A Brief Journey through Henk's life - by June Bennis.

June agreed to be 'interviewed' by me (LG).
Go to the "This is Your Life" tab.

Sad News - Hank Bennis has passed away.

Hank died on November 18 and the funeral was on the 28th. I only just found out.

He had spent about 6 weeks in RNS Hospital, when it was found that his prostate cancer had spread to his bones and he went downhill fairly quickly after that. He was 83.

June said she would put down a few things about Hank's life and then let me know. If this happens, then I will go and pick this up and possibly "interview" her for details about Hank's life, which will then go on our blog.

Time-line from Lawrie Peak

Lawrie has been asked to prepare a time-line for the Department.

Here it is:

Supernova in LMC Feb 1987 observations

Supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy in Feb 1987

In case you haven't seen it or forgotten, the link is to a video copy in my Microsoft Cloud of "Death of a Star" by BBC Horizon in 1988, which concerns the supernova observations back then. It does have CosRay connections, because the neutrino burst was recorded underground in Japan, AND as one of the cast is known to attend the Phillip's Foote gatherings! For the impatient go to the 35min mark.

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Av0GMewy3CFEgzHaIZXeEk0IXa6f

385MB mp4 47min.

--TonyP

Note on the Hot-Air Balloon at SydUni

Here is a further note on the hot-air balloon on the SydUni campus - hopefully of interest. Don will be able to tell us more. I was talking to an old Eng mate, who knew and worked (electronics company) with the leader of the Aerostat Society of Australia (Terry McCormack). With now further information, my mate and I were present at the first inflation and tethered flight in 1963 on St. John's College Oval.

---------------------------------------
For those reading further and still awake, there are two links of interest with some nice photos and a video clip:

Into the wild blue yonder (SAM Nov 2010)
http://sydney.edu.au/alumni/sam/november2010/flight-technology.shtml

Early hot air ballooning in Australia
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~p0gwil/?
-----------------------------------------

Alternatively, just a few extracts of interest follow. See the links above for the full story.

In 1962 a few students at St John’s College developed a light-hearted interest in hot air balloons. Terry McCormack and Terry Golding were the main enthusiasts; others joined them. By each donating the equivalent of about $50 they were able to start the design and construction of a balloon large enough to lift one person. Made of Mylar polyester film, coated with vaporised aluminium, the shape was a simple sphere, 9.7m in diameter, with a tangential cone 13.4m high, with a volume of 509.7 cubic metres.

It was built in a cafeteria at Uni, the 28 lengths of delicate sheeting carefully stacked, then cut all at once by machine. Not much thicker than lolly wrapper, Mylar is incredibly difficult to tear – except from any exposed edges, where it displays frightening weakness. Finally, the gores were taped together, on both sides, using strong 5cm fibreglass reinforced tape.

In June 1963 they named it Archimedes and called themselves the Aerostat Society of Australia. The first test inflation was on the college grounds using an electric blower to lift the tethered balloon.

After that flight, the members organised a free – untethered – flight, which had to be well away from air traffic corridors at Parkes in western NSW. A crowd gathered to watch the intrepid young men prepare for the maiden flight. Beneath the balloon was a simple platform to support the pilot and a gas cylinder. Test pilot Terry McCormack steadied himself on the open platform but Archimedes, with its tiny burner, was unable to lift off. There was little to jettison: Terry had no helmet, so he relinquished his parachute and that produced enough lift. Initially the tiny balloon dropped into a gully, followed by the crowd of spectators, but the balloon kept going and after 15 minutes, had climbed to 610m and traveled almost 5kms. Finally, the balloon descended behind a hill and landed heavily, flipping the platform upside down, leaving Terry suspended from a rope. When anxious spectators eventually arrived at the site he was found to be okay. It was Saturday, 4 July 1963 and Terry had made the first free balloon flight in Australia in more than 40 years.

The sad coda follows.

In Nov 1975, near Wagga in NSW, Terry was flying in his balloon  "New Endeavour". He and his passenger, were cruising low, over farming country.  It was a hot calm afternoon, when a willy-willy (whirl wind) struck. It lifted them a few hundred feet, spinning the envelope, and causing it to collapse. The balloon crashed and burnt. Terry died from the impact. He was 36 years old, and left a wife, Cherry. Months later, their son was born. His passenger Tony Hayes, 30, used his emergency parachute, but as they were too low, he also died.

--TonyP

Telescopes (The SydUniPhys Connection)

My memory was jogged by the anticipated hot-air balloon story and the assistance of our very own workshop chaps. I guess sufficient time has passed so I can safely mention the workshoppers and the ... ahem ... "foreign orders". However, it must be stressed that these were definitely of a scientific-engineering nature as could be reasonably expected from a then fully taxpayer-funded academic institution. Seriously, that's my opinion. My own foreign order concerned optical telescopes, and the assistance was most gratefully received scientifically - OK it was my hobby.

The background is that from the late fifties I was fascinated with telescopes. My first experiments were with lenses from a local optician and cardboard tubes. Needing to max magnification I tried a 2-metre focal length lens (0.5 dioptre, if you've forgotten Phil Guest's lectures) mounted in a cardboard tube. The chromatic and spherical aberration was terrible and even worse was the mechanical stability of mounting and pointing.

Anyway, I progressed to reflectors. Next was a Newtonian with a 6-inch parabolic mirror. That required some delicate polishing from a spherical surface. Depositing a reflective silver coating on the main mirror and the optical flat was interesting - also it quickly tarnished. Esdaile's in Sydney in those days had someone do aluminium reflective coatings and that problem was solved. The whole thing was mounted in a rickety split drain pipe with various Heath Robinson plumbing components and a counterweight. Mechanical stability was the main problem, and that's where our workshop came in. I scrounged some beautifully made Aussie WW2 brass things from those Army Disposals shops which were around in the city in Sydney in the sixties. I forget what they were called and I think they came from field gun optical sights? They had a full 360degree scale with a vernier and that's what a telescope needs. I wanted to make an equatorial mount to follow the celestial objects, where an ordinary 2-axis mounting is in turn mounted on a wedge with the angle of the geographic latitude (ca 35deg) and aligned geographic north-south along the wedge. Then one axis is for the right ascension and the other is the declination. My design needed brass pipes and a counterweight, so I went down to the workshop to scrounge some nice brass bits and to start using the lathes - "NO WAY PARKO"!!! However, being such nice chaps they decided to do a foreign order (I think it was foreign order night) and they did the whole construction to my design, including matching up the various threads. It was a fabulous job, and there was no way this simple amateur could have done any of it.

I used the 6-inch Newtonian for some years on and off, and even attempted celestial photography by slowly turning the right ascension knob to track the object through the finder. Hard work, especially in the middle of a Sydney night. After that, I invested in a professionally made Celestron 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, which has a motor drive on the right ascension to track the celestial objects in the night sky. It was imported from California by a school teacher who decided to become a dealer and make money from his astronomy hobby. I still have the telescope, now along with a smaller Maksutov-Cassegrain sourced from Asia which is suitable for terrestrial viewing. From the sixties there was a huge growth in local astronomy hobbyists. These days there are two big US manufacturers Celestron and Meade, plus some from Asia now - especially for achromatic primary lenses. The competition between Celestron and Meade is intense and these days their Schmidt-Cassegrains are fully computer-controlled and with even bigger primary mirrors so that you need to build a backyard observatory dome. I can only dream.

--TonyP

Cloud Chambers - the pre 1963 bit, from Jim McCaughan

Commenting on Tony Parkinson's info:

The pre 1963 bit: The first chambers to come to Sydneywere made in Dublin alright but came from Jamaica and were operated there by John Lehane. The Canadian chambers were set up on Sulphur Mtn Banff with some assistance from me in 1962. When they were finally operational in the latter part of 1962, I ran them until end of January 1963. Brian O'Donnel, an Irish PhD student from Calgary, continued to run them at Sulphur Mtn till 1964, then transferred them to Calgary, where he repeated the experiment at the lower altitude. Only when he finished with them did they come to Sydneyas Sydney, through Mac, had paid for them. Brian O'D's thesis was dated 1967 so it must have been about then that they came to Sydney.

Jim.

Interesting Documentary on Balloon Flights

I saw an interesting documentary on manned balloon flights, and it recalled for me the excellent post by Colin Gauld on the emulsion group's cosmic ray studies, and the photos of the balloon launches. The doco has some tech info so this collection of old blokes won't fall asleep, especially info on the balloon construction techniques and cosmic rays are mentioned en passant! It's a 390MB mp4 posted to my Microsoft One Drive thingo in the clouds. With the link below you can easily download it and play or stream it or if, unlike me, your gear is modern it will play directly on your chosen device. Enjoy:

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=4421DC32EC3106FD!431&authkey=!AMXeaCClRxd8Dwg&ithint=video%2cmp4

--TonyP

The Unreliable Memories of Derek Nelson

Derek has provided a wonderful account of both the history of the Cosmic Ray department and his recollections of the personalities and social life he experienced.

Check it out - it starts in the 'History' tab and continues in "This is Your Life".

The M-Unit Experiment

Dave Crawford has provided an excellent description of the M-unit Geiger counter experiment.

Check it out on the relevant tab above.

We are still waiting on someone to provide a detailed description of the 64-S experiment although there have already been several references to it in this blog.

HARRY MESSEL MEMORIAL

Professor Harry Messel AC CBE was a major force in science research, communication and education, and Head of the School of Physics at the University of Sydney for 35 years. He passed away on 8 July 2015 at the age of 93.

In recognition of Professor Messel's significant contributions to physics, teaching and the pursuit of excellence, the University of Sydney invites you to join us for this special memorial tribute.

Dame Marie Bashir AD, CVO will deliver one of the commemorative addresses. 

We also invite you share your own memories of Professor Messel at an afternoon tea following the tribute.

Event details

• When:2.00pm - 4.00pm
• Where:
  
  
  Friday 18 September 2015
  Great Hall,
  Camperdown Campus,
  The University of Sydney
• Cost:Free. Registration essential.
• Contact:Ms Moranne Baillie, Head, Outreach and Engagement
  T:  +61 2 9351 3135
  E: moranne.baillie@sydney.edu.au
  
• Speaker/ Performer:Dr Michael Spence, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, the University of Sydney
  Mr Albert Wong, President, Physics Foundation
  Emeritus Professor Richard Collins, former Head, School of Physics
  Her Excellency Dame Marie Bashir, former Chancellor and Governor of NSW
  Professor John Mattick, Head of the Garvan Institute and International Science School alumnus

Pentaquarks!!

Pentaquarks!!
Links FYI

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2015/jul/14/lhcb-claims-discovery-of-two-pentaquarks

http://arxiv.org/abs/1507.03414
(almost 800 authors!)

--TonyP

Harry Messel dies at 93

The Room 340 Cosmic Ray Trio captured by Physics III 1962

Caught in the lineup and were we embarrassed. We were later released to Cosmic Rays and imprisoned in Room 340 for the duration.

Thanks Bob Hewitt via Andy.

New Feature and New members....

1. Unless you are one of those who regularly checks this blog to see whether somebody has contributed a new piece, you might want to take advantage of the new feature ("gadget") that I have installed. By providing your email address in the box above the list of Phillip's Foote reunions, and following the prompts, you will receive notification about 24 hours after there has been a new contribution to the blog. Let me know if you have any queries about this.

2. Since we now have a new method of communicating, besides the annual Phillip's Foote reunions, I have wondered whether we should make some attempts to contact people who were part of the Cos Ray scene at Sydney but have not appeared at any of our gatherings. Residing outside of Sydney - even overseas - is no longer an obstacle.  Prompted by one of TonyP's articles, I decided to contact Hakki Ogelman, as I had been in touch with him (by email) some years back.

This was our exchange in 2004 (in reverse order):
*********************************************************************

Hi Hakki,

Sorry to hear about your health problems - hopefully you are fully recovered by now.  The timing is interesting though....all those marriages...

Attached are a few pictures taken at our reunions in a pub at Circular Quay - some from last week, some from 2 years back - you will probably recognise one or two of us.  I have email addresses for some of them.

Take it easy.

Leo

_________________________________________________________


Hi Leo; yes I remember you well;I think of my good days at Sydney and also
narrabri.I also remember Mick Ryan too, the fair colored one.I have had
some correspondance with Murray Winn; I even had dinner with him when I
visited Sydney back in ??  for a pulsar conference. .since then I have had 2
more marriges.first to a turkish woman, now to an italian woman with whom
I had a boy back in 1994. those are the pictures on the web site;I had a
mean stroke in 1996.which slowed me down considerably.Murray had told me
he had some heart problems, how is he now? He is a bad e-mailer. i am
interested in all the news from the SUGAR GROUP    keep me informed
pictures and all.cheers


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

> Hi Hakki,
>
> You may or may not remember me - we were pals during the development of
> the SUGAR array in 66-67.  Mike Ryan recently uncovered your web site so
> I just had to say hello!
>
> Our group regularly (every couple of years) has a reunion, and we had
> one just last week.  If you are interested I can send some photos that
> were taken.
>
> I am back at Sydney Uni - after an absence of some 25 years - but in IT,
> rather than physics.  Seems to be the way of most ex-physicists here.
>
> I enjoyed the family snaps, but wasn't sure who was what! You'll have to
> explain to me.  What ever happened to Ivy?
>
>
> Look forward to your response, if you have time.
>
> Rgds
>
> Leo
************************************************************************

Just as well I decided to check with Dr Google first!  See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakk%C4%B1_Boran_%C3%96gelman

and

https://aas.org/obituaries/hakki-b-ogelman-1940-2011


Hopefully we could have better luck with people such as John Loy, Geoff Chapman, Chris Bell, Seet Shou Khoon, Ray Woolcott, John Lehane, Peter Poole, Harry Messel.... and maybe others.  If anyone knows how to contact any of these 'lost souls', please let me know so that I can invite them to join in.

Memories of Murray

Memories of Murray

I don't know much about Murray's background or personal affairs - different vintages and lifestyles. I have a few reminiscences I can share, professional and semi-pro.

My professional interaction is shared by all SUGAR personnel as it involves electronics, and Murray was the driving force, especially for the electronics of the SUGAR experiment. When I began as a post-grad student on SUGAR in 1964, I was given the founding paper by McCusker and Winn. I always suspected that Murray originated the idea of using the central radio transmitter for the timing signals, and that was confirmed by the obit notes published here from his Haverah Park colleagues.

I had told Murray about my electronics hobbyist background, stretching back to even before High School when I used to buy the famous old Australian electronics magazine "Radio and Hobbies" and built electronics gear from locally scrounged radios and military disposals gear. Times past - kids today can start with a Raspberry Pi computer board. Murray loved to talk electronics and I became chief storeman (wow!) for the electronics store with various components, which Murray kept in his offfice for use by SUGAR-ists. That reminds me that Murray's office door was always open to the post-grads.

Murray gave me my first task on SUGAR and it concerned the radio receivers to be used at each station. He sent me out to talk to local Japanese TV receiver manufacturers to see if they could supply us with suitable equipment. Well I didn't speak Japanese and they didn't exactly speak English! What fun. Murray decided that we would build the receivers ourselves, and that task was later passed on to Roger.

Murray then steered me on to building the data handling gear for SUGAR. I have noted in a previous post that Murray gave me the initial sketch idea for the beating heart of the "Tonoscopes", which developed into the unique digital-analogue phase-locked oscillator (some details posted before). Murray was never satisfied and pushed me to keep building and testing the various versions of the SUGAR data-handling gear, until I had to remind him that I was actually a student on a very modest scholarship supplemented by teaching-demonstrating and had to write up a thesis!

I sometimes wished I had kept quiet about my hobbies, but it was the best electronics self-training. I had originally enrolled in Electrical Engineering at SydUni, but electronics studies were poorly served and there was no electronics until 4th year. I was electronically way ahead of my ElecEng mates.

I do recall visiting Murray in hospital after his nasty accident, and he likewise visited me in hospital when I had my appendix removed. Murray invited the beginning SUGAR students to his Riverview home at one time - it must have been in winter as I had just cancelled a weekend skiiing trip to the SydUni Hut at Thredbo to attend. BTW I spent many years cycling around the Riverview area with some killer hills.

After I left the Falkiner Dept nest I saw Murray on a few occasions. I'm sure all of us recall the gathering for Murray's retirement lunch at Brooklyn in 1990. Before that I had occasion to revisit Cosmic Rays a couple of times when Lawrie kindly gave me Falkiner Dept references for job applications, and I was made to feel very welcome. In particular, Murray insistently gave me copies of the latest SUGAR papers to read, so I still felt like I belonged. In fact, I ran into Murray browsing in a city bookshop and the discussion turned to reunions. If my memory serves me correctly that was the origin of the Phillip's Foote gatherings.

RIP Murray Winn.

-- Tony Parkinson

Thinking about Murray......

There are countless examples of how Murray’s originality and brilliance were an inspiration to all of us and the eulogies of Lawrie, Dominique and Daniel highlighted some of these. As my personal tribute, I would like to recall two particular episodes – separated by nearly 50 years – that cemented my admiration for this thoughtful and caring man.

Around 1966, I was in the 3^rd year of my PhD and started to put together the various programming ‘chunks’ for analysing the raw data from the SUGAR Pilot array, including the calculation of the direction of the shower. One day, Murray came to me with 3 sets of raw timing data, supposedly collected from an ‘event’ detected by the 3 pilot stations, and asked me to tell him from where in the sky the primary particle had originated. The intention was to check the accuracy of the program’s calculations. After several days’ of digging deep into high school trigonometry, my feeble knowledge of astronomy and various star maps – I came up with the answer of ‘Betelgeuse’ – which was correct. Not sure why Murraychose this particular star. I think he just liked saying ‘Beetle Juice’.

Fast forward to 2013, after Evelyn’s passing and while chatting to Murray at one of our Phillip’s Foote gatherings, I mentioned that I had been for several years a volunteer with Lane Cove council, providing transport for (mostly elderly) people needing to get to various appointments. Murraypiped up “I could do that”!  So, I sent him the  contact details by email and phoned a few weeks later to see if he had started yet. He said that he hadn’t received anything from me. It’s then that I learnt that although he was quite adept with a computer, he wasn’t connected to the internet. In the end, I sent him all the details by snail mail and he performed several months of transport duties, much to the delight of his ‘clients’, who were invariably much younger than Murray. It turned out that one of my ‘clients’ lived round the corner from Murray in Greenwich, so this was a good excuse for our frequent coffee meetings near Murray’s home, after I had completed my drop-off. Don joined us on one of these.

Memories of Murray from Jim Reid and Alan Watson

Jim McCaughan has passed on expressions of condolence for Murray from their mutual friends and colleagues at Leeds - Bob Reid and Alan Watson FRS.

Dear Jim,

Very sorry to hear that Murray has died. He was a good friend both at the time he spent in Leeds when he made a significant contribution to Haverah Park and to our thinking. And later after the Adelaide conference when I stayed with him and Evelyn. I still have a eucalyptus tree that they planted in our garden.

Hope all is well with you and Genevieve. With all good wishes,

Bob.

                                                    ******************

Dear Jim,

Thanks for letting me know this very sad news.  I was very fond of Murrayand got to know him very well during his one-year visit to Leedsmany years ago.  I recall vividly him cooking a meal for me and doing frozen Brussel sprouts without water – I think with some butter, probably a French novelty.  He was a brilliant experimentalist and we used a device that he designed for us, MAGIC (Murray’s automatic gain indicating circuit), that really revolutionised our data taking at Haverah Park.  It was extended and used for many years.

I was last in contact with Murray in 2011 when I spoke at some length with him by SKYPE about the way in which the idea for the Sydney air-shower array was developed by him.  He was very animated about it.  The original way of having a timing signal across the array (now duplicated at the Auger and Telescope Array projects) was certainly his idea and in our history of EAS published in 2012 Karl-Heinz Kampert and I make this very clear.  A very brief note of my conversation with Murray is attached. 

                                            ****************************

Conversation with Murray Winn 25-11-11

Murray rang in response to my e-mail of 08-11-11.  His e-mail is dodgy.  I called him back on SKYPE and we talked at length.

He did have the idea of autonomous detectors as I’d surmised.  McCusker had told him that he had always had the dream of building a really giant air-shower array.  Murray had the idea about a week later while on a walk to a look-out near the sea.  It all came to him in a flash – only time something like that ever happened to him.  McCusker liked the idea and said that he could get money from the Americans: he did.

It was Henri Rathgeber.  He read out title of a paper of Rathgeber’s in French.  Had a vague memory of Rathgeber mentioning that he had married the boss’s daughter.  Rathgeber was very interested in economics.  (This refers to another matter I was following up at the time: the history of Erich Regener, a German who discovered the maximum of the rate of production of ionisation in the atmosphere in the 1930s.  Regener lost his job as his wife was Jewish.  Per Carlson and I researched this a bit and there is a paper attached).

                                           ******************************

We also discussed Henri Rathgeber who was the son-in-law of an important German physicist, Erich Regener (see paper attached).

Click here to see Regener paper.

Please give my sympathies to the children who were quite young when they were in Leeds.

Best regards,

Alan