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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]
给那些正在收听、正在想象的听众，告诉他们这需要什么，你是如何参与的--能描述一下你的配置吗？[qh]
Like, say it's a Tuesday night and you're going out to observe.[qh]
比如，假设今天是周二晚上，你要出去观察。[qh]
What does your equipment look like? How long does it take? You know, what does it involve?[qh]
你需要哪些设备？要花多长时间？包括什么内容？[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]
首先我要说，提到配置时，听起来可能会有点吓人。[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]
但我想强调的是，现在确实有一些令人难以置信的仪器，它们现在更便宜了--人们称之为电子辅助天文学，你用相机就能观测天空。[qh]
The camera has better eyes than we do and can do some of that integrating.[qh]
这种相机的视力比我们好，可以进行一些整合。[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，现在非常流行的一个--我发誓没有人给我广告费，这是事实--有一家名为ZWO的公司制造了一款名为Seestar S50的设备，它售价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，它是一个50毫米的折射望远镜，大概有3磅重，我能直接把它夹在腋下。[qh]
This is a podcast so people can't see me lift my arms, but it's very easy to carry around.[qh]
这是播客节目，听众看不到我举起手臂，但它很容易携带。[qh]
You connect it with your mobile device and then it will mostly do the rest.[qh]
你把它和你的移动设备连接起来，然后它就会完成大部分的工作。[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学的任何知识才能使用它。[qh]
I have one of those. So, that's one setup that I have.[qh]
我有一个这样的设备，这是我配置里的一样。[qh]
I actually have two more. They all have names, by the way.[qh]
其实我还有另外两样，它们还都有名字呢。[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]
接下来我要给你们讲的是Chucky，Chucky是一个61毫米的折射镜，它也很轻便。[qh]
It's on a ZWO AM5 mount.[qh]
它安装在ZWO AM5的底架上。[qh]
It's basically a camera lens, like a telescope is a very fancy camera lens.[qh]
它相当于一个相机镜头，正如望远镜也是非常奇特的相机镜头。[qh]
And then I have a little computer that I use to pick out where I want the mount to go.[qh]
然后我还有一台小电脑，我用它来选择适合的底架位置。[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]
它会给我提供图像，在望远镜后面，我有一个专门为捕捉天文图像而设计的特殊天文相机。[qh]
So that's Chucky, and that's my big astrophotography setup.[qh]
这就是Chucky，它是我最大的天文摄影装置。[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学领域思考太空，然后回家，晚上你思考的是太空，观察太空。[qh]
Don't you ever get sick of space?[qh]
你从来没有厌倦过太空吗？[qh]
One of the things that happens after you get the images is that you actually have to clean them up.[qh]
在你得到这些图片后，有一件事必须做，你得清理它们。[qh]
So, there is the fun part: going outside and setting up the telescope.[qh]
有趣的是：走出家门，架起望远镜。[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，也许帮我把设备都背到户外的配偶并不觉得这部分有趣吧。[qh]
Because I'm disabled I can't carry it myself, so he has to help me.[qh]
因为我是残疾人，我没法自己背，所以他必须帮助我。[qh]
But it's fun to kind of sit there and watch the image live-capture.[qh]
但坐在那里观看现场拍摄的图像是一件有趣的事情。[qh]
So that part is fun.[qh]
所以这部分很有趣。[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，如果我真的想让颜色突出，真正以一种我能读懂的方式把所有的图像都呈现出来，我就得进行数据处理。[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]
前几天我在做一些数据处理，你要做的事不仅仅是拍摄你想看的任何物体的图像，你还必须拍摄所谓的暗流、本底和光框，这些都是为了帮助你校准。[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]
相机可能引入的任何误差，就像任何量子效果，任何来自相机加热的效果，所有这些东西。[qh]
And I messed up my darks the other night.[qh]
有天晚上我把暗流给搞砸了。[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]
我把所有东西都放进去了，我的电脑在运行，好像一次性占用了我硬盘上的100G空间。[qh]
And then on the other end there's this awful image with this giant horizontal streak in the middle of it.[qh]
然后在另一端出现了一张很烂的图片，中间有一条巨大的水平条纹。[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]
我为这事儿花了大概一个小时，我没注意到暗流出现了这个错误。[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]
这就像，为什么我要把工作中最糟糕的那部分--我不需要每天都去做--变成我的爱好？[qh]
That's a lingering question.[qh]
这是一个挥之不去的问题。[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，从专业的角度来看，我觉得这是一个非常重要的提醒，让人们意识到建造望远镜工作的重要性。[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]
在天文学领域有一个问题，仪器建造者往往会被轻视为不是“真正的天文学家”的技术人员，这很荒谬，我对这个问题非常敏感，因为我的两个最好的朋友是望远镜建造者。[qh]
So one, I think that this helps ground me in understanding why their work is important.[qh]
首先，它帮我理解了为什么他们的工作很重要。[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，它还帮我了解了那些真正在处理数据和进行数据分析的人。[qh]
That is hard work and there's a lot of human choice that goes into it.[qh]
这是一项艰苦的工作，其中涉及到很多人为的选择。[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]
当它不是你日常工作的一部分时，你可能会忘掉很多细节，所以这对我来说是一个很好的提醒。[qh]
Also, we're in an awful political moment in so many different ways.[qh]
此外，从很多方面来看，我们正处于一个可怕的政治时刻。[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]
现在有很多人生活在困境中，我认为对我来说这是让自己脚踏实地的好方法。[qh]
As my mom has reminded me, there's a universe beyond the bad things that are happening to us.[qh]
正如我妈妈提醒我的那样，除了发生在我们身上的坏事之外，外面还有一个浩瀚的宇宙。[qh]
