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Hello! My name's Michael Peel (or, if acronyms after a name mean anything to you: Mr Michael Peel MPhys FRAS AMInstP). Welcome to my website! As you're here, odds are you already know me, so I'll forgo much description of myself and just sketch out the basics.
Current activities
I'm currently studying for a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Jodrell Bank Observatory (now part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics).
My research has several components. First, I have been creating virtual cosmological skies consisting of the CMB, clusters of galaxies and more than a few point sources - active galactic nuclei and dusty galaxies that are too small to cover even a pixel on my maps. I'm constructing these so that I can observe them with a virtual telescope to see how well the maps can be reconstructed. I'm also doing simulations of the atmosphere at microwave frequencies.
I'm also involved with the construction and commissioning of the One Centimetre Receiver Array (OCRA) FARADAY receiver. This is an 8 beam receiver (to be upgraded to 16 beams later) that works at a frequency of 30 GHz (1cm wavelength). It was partially constructed prior to the start of my PhD; I'm now actively involved with completing the receiver (I'm lending a hand with screwing it all together, and am doing the majority of the testing of it), and I'll be helping to get it working on the telescope before the end of 2008.
I'm also interested in learning some of the history behind astronomy. Since I started my PhD, I've started looking into the history of Jodrell Bank, and have created a timeline of the various telescopes. I've also tried to record a few stories that I've heard about Jodrell that I can't find written down. Finally, I've made a list of news articles featuring Jodrell Bank.
Past activities
I completed an MPhys in Physics and Astrophysics in June 2006; lecture notes from this are on this webpage.
Me in Real Life
... aka what I do apart from astronomy.
I have a strong interest in computers (I've put some bits I find useful at Software and Jodrell computing) and have numerous websites. I also do a fair bit of photography, and have recently started doing timelapse photography.
My profiles on other websites include:
You
Here's a section about you! Well, actually, hopefully it's not about you. If any of the questions below do happen to be right, though, then please click on the link to see why they shouldn't...
... more coming soon (suggestions welcome).
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