Luke Sollitt

Space Radiation Laboratory

Caltech

ACE launches aboard a Delta II rocket on August 25, 1997

(view from a camera on the first stage, during the first SRB sep)

If you're looking at this site, then you probably know who I am and are bored out of your mind. In case you don't know me, I am a now a FORMER graduate student (see below) at Caltech studying space physics. This page is mostly a place for me to organize interesting web pages I like to visit. The background you are looking at is a real time image of the Sun taken by the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) aboard the SOHO spacecraft. This is not a visible light picture -- rather, it is in the extreme ultraviolet, 171 Angstroms to be exact. It is current, and updates pretty often (thanks, EIT folks!). Check out the EIT web page here.

Update on studies: I defended on September 2, 2003. The final version of the thesis, titled "Ionic Charge States of Solar Energetic Particles", was turned in on September 10. I am now finished, though I still intend to write a paper based on the thesis research this Fall. I will also be starting a job this Fall at Northrop Grumman Space Technology.

Addresses:

Here are some pages of interest:

News

Astrophysics/ Space Physics Resources

Chandra X-Ray Telescope Science Center
GCN Network
HETE 2 (High Energy Transient Explorer 2) -- the first HETE is no more
The NSSDC
The Astrophysical Journal
The NASA Astrophysics Data System, a great place for looking up astrophysics papers
High Altitude Observatory
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
The Student Nitric Oxide Explorer of the University of Colorado

ACE Real Time Solar Wind
ACE Browse Data
The Cosmic and Heliospheric Learning Center -- if you really want to know what I do for a living

General physics

CERN Preprint Server
LANL e-Print archive. This is where the famous astro-ph collection is located.

NASA Shuttle Web
NASA Academy
Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP)
Apollo Lunar Surface Journal Definitely for the big time space geek. It almost makes you feel like you're there along with the astronauts.
NASA's Historical Archive for Manned Missions, though it seems to not be working at present.
A Solar System Simulator at JPL (definitely a must-see)
NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day Another top space geek site. One could spend yet more hours poring over the archives.

Other Space Agencies of the World

SCA Pages

The Kingdom of Caid
The Crescent and the Rose, more pages for Caid
Barony of Angels Home Page, but beware if you are running Netscape 4.X, as the site has a tendency to crash older Netscape browsers
The College of the Voyagers, the Caltech SCA group, used to have a web page. It is not up at the moment. If you are curious about the SCA at Caltech, send me an email or give me a call. I am always happy to chat.

Miscellaneous

My one-time (and long ago) alma mater: Simon's Rock College
The University of Maryland, my somewhat more recent alma mater.
Space Systems Laboratory at the University of Maryland
CRAIC, the Celtic Regional Arts Institute of California
For all those people you always wanted to read about: biography.com
Jeff Russell, Professor Emeritus at UCSB (and a friend)
One of my favorite places, The National Air and Space Museum
The San Diego Aerospace Museum is Southern California's version of
the NASM. Main Difference? Here, the planes are so close that if you're
not careful, you'll bang your head on WWII steel. It also houses the Aerospace Hall of Fame
The Owl's Head Transportation Museum in Owl's Head, Maine, has a great many old cars and planes.
The Southern California Weather Page
My favorite bookstore, Krown & Spellman, Booksellers
The Aero Association of the California Institute of Technology (the Caltech flying club)
The Caltech Alpine Club
Some diving photos are here.

Buzz Aldrin sets up the Solar Wind Composition (SWC) foil on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission