http://bear.ras.ucalgary.ca/magdalen/index.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995) Magdalen Normandeau
Current research
My PhD thesis work serves as the pilot project for the
Dominion Radio
Astrophysical Observatory's (DRAO)
Galactic Plane
Survey (GPS). The W3/4/5/HB3 Galactic complex was observed with the DRAO
synthesis telescope at two continuum frequencies (408 MHz and 1420 MHz)
as well as in the 21cm spectral line of atomic hydrogen.
These observations served to develop an efficient observing strategy
for the GPS, optimizing scheduling, calibration, sky-coverage, etc. The
scientific focus of the thesis is the interaction of massive stars with the
interstellar medium, focusing primarily on wind-blown and supernova-caused
shells and how they affect the ISM on large scales, the phases of the ISM
and, to some extent, galactic evolution.
The image on the left is the continuum 1420 MHz 10-field mosaic of the
W3/4/5/HB3 region. The brightest feature is the young star forming region
W3. It is flanked by the shell-type SNR HB 3 to the right and by the W4
loop of ionized gas to the left. The extended structure east of this is W5.
The other image shows one of the 127 HI,
constant-velocity maps -- this one at -25.27 km/s -- of the same region.
Past projects
Master's project
I completed my Master's in December 1990 under the supervision of Gilles
Joncas at universite Laval in Quebec City. David Green served as an unofficial
co-supervisor, particularly during my stay at the DRAO.
My MSc research project was based on one field of a previous DRAO Galactic
Plane survey project. The observatory had begun what was to be a high resolution
408 MHz survey, the field centres being chosen to provide complete coverage
at this frequency with the centre portion of each field being mapped at 1420
MHz, continuum and line, simultaneously. The fields for this survey were fit
into the observing queue whenever time was available after the scheduling of
outside proposals. As a result, and keep in mind that it then took 35 days to
observe one field, only a few fields were observed.
Summer at NFRA: 3C236
I spent the summer of 1991 working at the Netherlands Foundation for Research
in Astronomy under the direction of Richard Schilizzi and, in his absence,
that of Tony Foley. The
project dealt with VLBI Mark III/B observations at lambda = 6 cm of the
giant radio galaxy 3C236. The objective was to map its nuclear components.
Spectral characteristics would then be derived from comparisons with 18 cm
data. Unfortunately, the summer's conclusion was that MERLIN observations were
required before any conclusions could be reached. These lower resolution
observations were carried out in the year following my summer stint but due to
time commitments of the parties involved, the project has yet to be finalized.
Orion multislit spectra
In the spring of 1992, as a part of a graduate observational astronomy
class, I became involved in a project with Gilles Joncas based on
multislit spectra of the Orion nebula, centred on the [SII] doublet.
The purpose of the observations was to map the electron density of the region
as well as its velocity field. After much painstaking data reduction,
the project had to be abandonned because of ghost images of one line being
superimposed on the other line.
Side project
As a bit of a side project, I have become involved in scientific translation
from English into French. I have mostly done such work for the DRAO (telescope
description and proposal form, newsletters, slide-show text), as well as for
CASCA (an article in Cassiopea and the CASCA-95 documentation). If you have
anything to be translated, let me know; I'll fit it in if I can but, be
warned, it's time-consuming so I can't always take on the task.
http://bear.ras.ucalgary.ca/magdalen/index.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
