From MikePeel.net
Hello! My name's Mike 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 of what I do.
Astrophysics
I'm currently studying for a PhD in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Jodrell Bank Observatory (now part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics). The research I'm doing spans theoretical astrophysics through to receiver technology, as well as involving some old-fashioned astronomy (i.e. measuring things on the sky)
Theoretical: I have been creating virtual cosmological skies consisting of the Cosmic Microwave Background, galaxy clusters and point sources (active galactic nuclei and dusty galaxies that are too small to cover even a pixel on my maps). These will be used for testing observational strategies using a virtual telescope and receiver, as well as for exploring the various properties of the maps with different input physics. I'm also doing simulations of the atmosphere at microwave frequencies. See "Statistics of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect power spectrum on arXiv.
Practical: I'm involved with the construction and commissioning of the second-generation One Centimetre Receiver Array (OCRA) 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 soon.
Observational: I'm using the first-generation OCRA receiver - the OCRA prototype - to carry out some observations of point sources at microwave frequencies, and have written my own program (pretty much from scratch) to process the observational data. See e.g. "Survey of Planetary Nebulae at 30 GHz with OCRA-p".
Real Life
I have a strong interest in computers (I've put some bits I find useful at Software and Jodrell computing) and have several websites. I also do a fair bit of photography, and have recently started doing timelapse photography.
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.
I completed an MPhys in Physics and Astrophysics in June 2006; lecture notes from this are on this webpage.
I'm currently a director of Wikimedia UK, a chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation. This is a charity that was recently set up to help support and promote free projects like Wikipedia. If you're active on Wikipedia, then you should join!
My profiles on other websites include:
