Dr. Kelley Hess

@khesser

Astronomer/Senior Researcher at Onsala Space Observatory/Chalmers University, Sweden; ultra runner, adventure racer, cyclist. Ironman WC 2012, 2014. Xterra World Champs 2014.

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¿Es tu perfil?Reclámalo y khesser.dirty.social es tuyo.Reclamar perfil

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 12h

In the final stretch passed another abandoned mine where the water running down the hill from the mine carrying minerals turned the rocks orange. At the end, arrived at an open hut where we could dry off and get a hot shower. Amazing. Then off to Trondheim for dinner and a real bed. 7/7.

View down a broad valley towards a large lake. It’s very hard to see but there is a group of reindeer in silhouette against the water on the far left side.

View uphill: there’s a tunnel into the hillside which is part of the old mine. A narrow stream of water flows out of the tunnel and across the hiking path. The ground is stained orange under the stream.

The steam from the mine continues to flow downhill. The ground under the water is stained orange but the water is clear. The slopes going up on either side are green with low bushy vegetation. Very dark green moss grows on either side of the orange stream.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 12h

Day 3: Schulzhytta to Bjørneggen, 22.9 km. Got an early start to avoid as much incoming weather as possible. Luckily the rain held off until after lunch. Trail was very wet with lots of creek/river crossings, and so were we. Saw tons of reindeer—five different groups. 6/7

Looking across a wooden bridge from one side. Sheep are laying down on the bridge on the other side. The other side is covered in tall green pine and deciduous trees.

Looking across a broad valley towards a broad river. The valley is bright green and dotted with trees. A muddy path Carrie’s on to the right. The sky is completely overcast.

Looking down towards a rocky creek crossing. The opposite bank is covered in trees. The top of the hill that rises on the otherwise is obscured by low clouds. A hiker descends towards the creek.

View down a broad shallow valley, green from low ground cover. A wall of rain is visible in the middle distance over the hills down the valley.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 4d

Hosts said it is the furthest north crewed hut, furthest crewed hut away from a road, and the most sustainable. Supplies are brought in twice a year (or season?) by helicopter, and some fresh stuff (veggies) are brought in every ~two weeks on horseback (if I remember right). 5/n

Looking down the tree filled valley towards a building—a speck—in a clearing. The trail descends to the right with red “T”s painted on the rocks.

Looking down river from a bridge. The water flows rapidly over rocks. Green pine trees come all the way to the river’s edge.

A can of beer on a wood table in a DNT hut. It has a man’s face in silhouette on it and say “Schulzøl en god schlager”. “Schulzhyta”. It was described as the cabin’s beer.

A man stands next to a green tent in a small clearing.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 4d

Day 2: Ramsjøhytta to Schulzhytta, 14.7 km. A shorter day, but a more technical trail in parts, at higher elevation. The first half was quite wet; second half a bit more rocky. This is part of Norge på Tvers route. The Schulzhytta DNT hut offers a three course dinner which we took advantage of. 4/n

Low clouds sit in a layer above a green valley and cover the top of a mountain.

Looking back over a rocky part of the trail towards the lake at the end of the valley where we stayed the night before. It’s raining in the distance over the lake.

Looking downs on sparse short birch trees in a valley that we will hike the following day. Some blue sky is visible between low fluffy clouds.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 4d

Had dinner on the trail and ended late, camping near a DNT on a lake opposite the highest mtn in the park which still had some snow. Still have lots of daylight making it easy to walk until after 8pm. 3/n

Looking back down the broad valley we just walked up. Next to the trail are plants that make fluffy seeds, reminiscent of “tundra cotton” in Skyrim.

View towards a lake nearing sunset. Linear clouds streak across most of the top half of the image. Mountain in the background has snow patches. Hiker in the foreground surveys the lake which is reflecting the light yellow sky.

Looking down a valley in thedirection opposite the sunset. The clouds and distant mountains are pink against a purple and blue sky.

Looking towards the sunset. Interesting clouds are bright orange and reflected in the lake below. The mountain opposite has patches of snow.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 4d

Day 1: Bjørneggen to Ramsjøhytta, 16.8 km. Started late but made good time. The blueberries are out and the cloudberries are ripening. Mostly uphill over relatively easy trail. Saw an abandoned (exploratory?) mine and broad views of the vallleys below. 2/n

View from a bridge overlooking a broad river that runs over exposed, eroded sedimentary rocks. The bright green forest comes right to the banks of the river. Partly cloudy sky overhead.

A view down with blueberries 🫐 and an unripe cloudberry. It will turn from red to light orange when it’s ready to eat. Leafy green low bushes abound.

A view uphill. Some trees cluster in patches around water. The rest of the hills are cover in low green bushes.

A discarded iron cable wheel (pulley wheel?) with mounting points at both ends of the axel. Its surface is rusted, sitting at an angle on the ground next to a trail marker and next to the abandoned mine.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 5d

Spent the last 3 days hiking around Karven and Roltdalen National Park in Norway, near Trondheim. Tested out a new Hilleberg Gallo tent (it’s great), and saw loads of reindeer, in addition to the incredible scenery. 🏕️ 1/n

A tent pitched above the tree line. The front outer tent is unzipped revealing the inner tent. To the right a winter trail marker (pole with a red “x”) is visible to the right. A backpack and trekking poles lie on the ground in front. Green hills with low ground cover extend rinto the distance.

View of a broad Norwegian valley. In the foreground is a summer trail marker: a small stone with a red “T”. A hiker walks away down the path with a blue backpack and hiking poles.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 8d

Driving through Värmland, Dalarna, Härjedaland, Jämtland on the way to still greater adventures. Seen: 1 moose, 2 ptarmigans, 27 reindeer, the only identified post-glacial meteorite crater in Sweden (Torkratern; 2000 years old; there should be 40-50), and beautiful landscape.

Standing on the path around the edge of a 2000 year old crater in the middle of a sparse pine forest/heath. There’s a pile of large cracked (bed?)rocks in the center. It’s 40 m in diameter and 5 m deep.

A scenic view across heath, meadows, tundra, to distant mountains in the middle afternoon. The colors of vegetation vary from green to yellow to purple.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 9d

We have a new Dr! Last week Dr Clara C. de la Casa defended her PhD thesis, Environmentally-Driven Galaxy Evolution and Cluster Assembly from a Multi-Phase View of the Bayronic Cycle in the Hydra I Cluster. The committee also awarded her a Cum Laude distinction. I’m a very proud supervisor! 🧪🔭📡

The cover of “Environmentally-Driven Galaxy Evolution and Cluster Assembly from a Multi-Phase View of the Bayronic Cycle in the Hydra I Cluster” by Clara Cabanillas de la Casa. It features 3 galaxies with the background image in Halpha, purple contours for the atomic HI, and orange contours for the molecular CO gas.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 12d

The narrow streets of Granada, Spain were as enchanting as always this week.

View of Albaicín from the road down the Alhambra. Tall dark cypress trees rise between a sea of sandy tile roofs and white painted houses.

A cypress tree on the side of shallow pedestrian steps with a view of the old city of Granada with the churches rising above the rooftops.

A narrow passage between houses. On either side are white wall with plants on the ledges. Straight ahead a shallow descending stairs and a view across to the Alhambra.

A narrow walking street with a white and black mosaic in stones on the ground. On either side rise three story apartment buildings painted in bright colors: yellow, blue, red.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 15d

Just heard UKRI is cutting all funding to eMERLIN array, Jodrell Bank & the historic UNESCO Lovell Telescope (pictured) in addition to other cuts in radio... This just as radio astro around the world is growing! Shockingly shortsighted to harm the UK’s own community. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 😤

The 250 ft (76 m) Lovell telescope points straight up in the parked position. The structure which supports the dish and the altitude track are very geometrically pleasing. People around the bottom show its ginormous scale. The telescope sits in a field at low light against a partly cloudy sky.

The Lovell telescope observing in an early Dec morning, with the dish illuminated by light yellow glow of sunlight. The dish is reflected in a reflecting pool in front of a building. The sky is a stunning clear blue.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· 20d

I’m headed to Granada for my student’s PhD thesis defense on Monday (yay!), but I might be flying into the Sahara desert today. 😳 😷

View of the horizon from an airplane window with the engine visible at the bottom. Although out of focus, the atmosphere has a strong transition from blue above to very dusty brown below which obscures features on the ground.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Jun 4

Still upside down this morning. I wasn’t around last week. I’m guessing this is since at least 1 June, but maybe earlier. Maybe this is an experiment in how well folks examine their environment and/or how information travels in a university.

A view of students walking onto the Chalmers campus. The purple flag that says “CHALMERS” is still flying upside down. Sun shines through the overcast sky.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Jun 3

Chalmers University recently unveiled its new visual identity. What do you guys think? 🙃

Three flag poles in front of a generic three story brick university building. On the left is a purple flag waving in the wind with “CHALMERS” in white, upside down. The center pole has a white flag, and the right pole has the pride flag.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Jun 3

In case you missed it (I did), the SKA Mid telescope has made a preliminary image of an OH maser around an evolved star in our galaxy in tribute to outgoing Director-General Phil Diamond using four telescopes. Look at that beauty!! 🧪 📡 🔭 🌟

A three panel image. Left: Retired SKAO Director General Phil Diamond holds up a framed version of the following two images in from of SKA HQ with the Jodrell Bank telescope in the background. Center: a spectrum of an OH maser colored from blue to red corresponding the redshift of the spectral line. Right: the front page of Phil's first paper which was written about the same OH maser in 1983 entitled "The peculiar circumstellar envelope around IRC+10420".

Linked in post from SKA Observatory reads:
" #TeamSKA had a special tribute for our outgoing Director-General Prof. Philip Diamond. This spectrum shows the radio emission from a hydroxyl (OH) maser coming from the expanding shell around the evolved star IRC+10420 as observed by four connected dishes of the SKA-Mid telescope in South Africa.

Observations of this maser at 1612 MHz were the subject of Prof. Diamond's very first first-author paper back in 1983. He used the UK's MERLIN array - since upgraded to become e-MERLIN - and we saw it as fitting tribute to his leadership to observe the same maser using an early version of SKA-Mid.

Masers are essentially space lasers - they're extremely bright and emit at radio frequencies, so they can penetrate the dusty parts of the Milky Way, and tell us a lot about the regions where they originate. In the case of IRC +10420, we can learn about the processes through which mass is lost as the star nears the end of its life. Comparin ghtis new observation to Diamond et al.'s observations in 1983 we can see a significant evolution in the star.

Prof. Daimon was presented with a framed print of his first paper next to the new spectrum (and a preliminary image of just one tiny bright maser dot!) during a farewell event at our HQ.

'SKA-Mid is going to do an absolutely wonderful job of observing objects like this,' he said. 'It's fantastic to see this spectral line image. I'll treasure this.'

This observation is an exciting step towards an official first image from these early SKA Mid dishes - we're looking forward to that later this year!

#astronomy #science"

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· May 27

More shots from the Stockholm to Turku ferry. Amazing view. Party boat reputation unnecessary to make this trip way better than the flying option.

Looking out the front of the ferry close to sunset as it passes between two islands. Cool pattern of clouds in the sky above.

Looking from the ferry to the orange horizon surrounded by water and forested islands and dramatic clouds.

Looking from the ferry to the dark silhouetted shore: fantastic sunset reflected in the not exactly calm water around the ferry. Big clumpy clouds catch the orange and pink glow and are reflected in the water.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· May 25

Stockholm to Turku by overnight ferry!

Looking towards downtown Stockholm from the deck of a ferry. Spires rise above the skyline. Yellow sunset on the horizon below a layer of dramatic gray clouds. There are cushioned chairs on the deck of the ship and a family with their backs to the camera look out. The Finnish flag catches a bit of wind.

Looking towards the shoreline where Swedish buildings with red roofs cluster around the shore and ships sit in harbor.

Further out of town, the buildings are much thinner along the coast line, dominated by trees, rocks and rolling by hills. Sunset in the background.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Apr 18

The Netherlands: must be almost wadlopen season! 😁 Where does the land end and the sea begin?

A view of the Wadden Sea from above. Farmland on the mainland is seen through sparse clouds. The Wadden Sea is muddy and extends towards the Wadden islands which are lined by beach in the far northern side. Channels of bluer water flow through the muddy sea in the deeper parts. The island in the distance is Terschelling.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Apr 16

The Nice Observatory at Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur is stunning. The building was built by Charles Garnier and the dome by Gustave Eiffel! Definitely worth a visit.

View from the outside of the observatory. It’s an impressive, broad, white stone facade with steps leading up to the door. Above the door is a winged figure covered in gold leaf. On the top of the building is a large white dome.

A view from the observatory overlooking Nice, towards the Mediterranean Sea.

$The refractor telescope mounted on a large cement pedestal inside the dome. Blue and red colored lights illuminate the inside of the dome.$

A stair case that rolls around the inside of the dome against the wall in order to be able to move and interact with the telescope.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Apr 3

Ljungleden: Ride through beautiful countryside. May or may not have seen some standing stones (not on any verified source I’ve found yet) but in the process learned we missed legit Viking rune stones(!). Camping next to a bird sanctuary lake, and spoke to some locals about their Easter bonfire.

Standing stones(?) on top of a hill against an overcast sky. Origin of stones unconfirmed.

A tent next to a lake with an east bonfire in the distance.

A very very old stone bridge across a river covered in moss.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Apr 3

Long holiday weekend calls for some bike packing and sleeping outside.

Two fully loaded bikes for bike packing lean against the inside of a train car while a lake and trees roll by outside.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Mar 31

From Monday, but… Good evening Göteborg, ya beauty.

Sunset reflected in a broad city canal. Silhouetted against the sunset in the distance are two of Gothenburg’s iconic harbour cranes, now retired.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Mar 3

First commute by bike to Onsala of the year!

A grey and orange bike leans against folded seats in a train waiting at the station. An orange backpack leans against the front wheel. The bike: a Trek 1120 with luggage racks for bike camping, and the backpack: a Mystery Ranch/Carryology Unicorn 2.0, are totally dope.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Feb 18

Enjoying the serendipity of the timeline.

Two Bluesky posts. The first is a headline from the Colorado Sun that says “An old land dispute in the San Luis Valley pits the privacy of a billionaire's new home against grazing sheep” and the second from Effin’ Birds that says “What a fuckwit”.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Feb 14

We got custom Buffs made for the Sweden SKA Science Days and other sweSRC and Nordic ARC node events this year, inspired by the telescopes and landscape of Onsala Space Observatory. The anticipation has been intense, but they turned out so well! 🤩 🔭 📡

The Buff neck warmer/head cover on its packaging.

One side of the Buff featuring three radio telescopes in yellow that represent the OSO 25 m, and the Osaka twin telescopes. Above the telescopes is some geometric stylised northern lights, and in the foreground is an inlet from the sea and the rocky coastline. The landscape is shades of blue.

A side of the Buff featuring the ray dome, in yellow, that houses the Onsala 20 m. There is some aurora and stars above the dome and pine trees on the horizon, and two deer subtly in the foreground. The landscape is in blue.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Feb 12

View from the office yesterday. 📡 🔭 ❄️

Looking across a conference table with a laptop and coffee cup on the near side. Out the windows on the opposite side of the room is a snowy Swedish coastal landscape featuring three radio telescopes and a small red painted building

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Jan 18

Completed the Sandsjöbacka 60 km trail race yesterday. Had a really good time running with my friend Tom. His first ultra! Most of the trail was muddier and wetter than pictured here, but beautiful and tough. A 5000 calorie day. 😂

Strava map of the course from Kungsbacka to Gothenburg over Sandsjöbacka nature reserve. PR/records are inaccurate, but all good.

Runner mid-stride, seen from the back with her arms up, running along a trail along the ridge of a hill. Landscape is dotted with matches of snow and low brush. Sky is overcast with a bit of lingering color from the sunrise on the horizon

Runner coming at the camera over a path of packed snow.

Finish line arch in the dark. In the distance two headlamps can be seen about to turn onto the finishing stretch.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Jan 11

In today’s very Scandinavian day, went cross country skiing with @lboschman.bsky.social in the afternoon (until the sunset at 3:50 pm), and later saw a wee bit of aurora from the snow covered ferry terminal across the Göta älv river with ice flows.

A guy in a blue zip-up and snow pants stands off trail with two pairs of skies and poles. A XC ski train disappears into the woods behind him. Snow everywhere.

The iconic shipyard cranes of Gothenburg lit up in red at night across the river. In the foreground are ice flows in the river.

A smudge of green of aurora viewed across the river and just above a layer of low clouds. Visible despite the city lights.

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Jan 9

Breaking: SKA-Mid achieved first fringes last month! This is the first step towards individual dishes becoming an interferometer. It's kind of a big deal. Congrats to the SKA Mid Commissioning Team! Looking forward to first SKA Mid image in 2026. 🔭 📡 🧪 www.skao.int/en/news/693/...

Quoted from the email announcement: "The figure shows the amplitude and phase data averaged over the 5 minute observation period (top panels) and the waterfall plots showing their variation with time. The phases are flat as a function of frequency, as expected for an isolated point source at the center of the field. Additionally, they are constant in time. This indicates that the system is stable and working as expected. Regions of strong, well-known RFI from geolocation satellites can be clearly seen in the amplitude plots. [Image produced by Shin’ichiro Asayama from data taken by the System AIV team with support from the ATLAS team]"

Quoted from the website announcement: "One of the seven SKA-Mid dishes now constructed on site in South Africa's Northern Cape, with SARAO's MeerKAT radio telescope in the background. Credit: SKAO/Max Alexander."

Dr. Kelley Hess@khesser· Jan 8

Day 7: Echo Point to Lake St Clair Vistors Ctr - Wet, muddy and a downed tree from the storm during the night, but still the easiest walk of the week. Worth walking rather than the power boat ferry from Narcissus. No platypus, but the hot shower, burger and beer at the end were amazing!!! 15/10!