Satellite telescope is ready to go

The Swift satellite's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope has seen its first light, Penn State University announced last week, which means that Swift is now fully operational and ready for its mission to study gamma-ray bursts.

The UV/Optical telescope is one of three telescopes that will work in unison during the NASA-led Swift mission. One telescope will detect the short, powerful bursts of gamma rays; the others will then aim at the source of the bursts and capture X-ray, UV and optical images of the burst and its afterglow.

Swift, launched in November, is controlled at Penn State. Scientists hope the mission will reveal what is generating gamma-ray bursts.

A winter star party

Convincing people to stand outside on a cold winter night sounds like a hard sell, but the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh has been doing that with some success for 12 years now.

The club's 12th annual Wagman Winterfest will be this Saturday at the Wagman Observatory in Deer Lakes Regional Park, Frazer. Activities begin at 4 p.m. with solar viewing and will continue through the evening, when the Great Orion nebula, the brilliant star Sirius and the rings of Saturn should be visible.

Admission is free. For directions, call the observatory at 724-224-2510.

CMU submits race entries

It's back to the races for Carnegie Mellon University and robotics pioneer William "Red" Whittaker. Entries for two robotic racers were submitted last week to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for this fall's $2 million Grand Challenge race.

The Red Team, headed by Whittaker, once again entered Sandstorm, a heavily modified 1986 Humvee that dominated the field in last year's inaugural Grand Challenge race in California's Mojave Desert. And Red Team Too, headed by electrical engineer Kevin Peterson, has entered Highlander, a converted H1 Hummer provided by its manufacturer, AM General.

Though DARPA requires separate entries and team leaders for each vehicle, both CMU vehicles are being developed and prepared by a single group of team members and sponsors.

The entry deadline for DARPA's 175-mile desert race is Friday; thus far, more than 140 teams have submitted at least partial applications. DARPA expects to qualify up to 20 teams for the Oct. 8 race.

And at Cafe Scientifique...

Joel Tarr, a history professor at Carnegie Mellon University, will discuss how Pittsburgh has dealt with such environmental challenges as smoke abatement, mine drainage and river pollution at tonight's meeting of Cafe Scientifique Pittsburgh.

Tarr is editor of the book, "Devastation and Renewal: An Environmental History of Pittsburgh and its Region."

Cafe Scientifique provides the public with an opportunity to informally discuss scientific issues. It meets at 7 p.m. tonight at the Penn Brewery, North Side. Admission is free. For details, visit www.cafescipgh.org