Mission Statement

This blog will be a temporary enterprise. I will attend the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union that takes place in Prague, Czech Republic, from August 14 to 25, and blog from there.

It will be a big event with hundreds, if not thousands of astronomers that are spread over different symposia and sub-conferences. I will only participate during the first week and mainly listen to the talks in Symposium 235 which is dubbed "Galaxy Evolution across the Hubble Time".

The main focus of this blog will be on astronomical results and news and I expect much interesting stuff to happen at this meeting. Postings may or may not require some background in astronomy and will probably consist in short comments and summaries that are not meant to be self-contained and complete. There might as well be some notes and reminders for myself.

I shortly considered blogging anonymously, maybe to be able to tell my "real opinion" about speakers and presentations without the fear of negative consequences for my future life in astronomy. Then I realised that astronomers usually are reasonably good at taking critics, that I do not intend to scathe anyone anyway and that I have no problem taking the responsibility for what I say or write. :-)

Therefore, some quick facts about myself: My name is Thomas Marquart and I am enrolled as a PhD-student in the Galaxy Group at the Uppsala Astronomical Observatory in Sweden. Since this blog will not be about myself, this should suffice.