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What Are Astronomers Doing?
Nairn Baliber
"California Dude" 
Nairn catches a few winks on his front porch. He needs it; he'll be chasing planets all night long.
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Nairn grew up in the San Fernando Valley, just outside Los Angeles, in sunny Southern California. During his undergraduate career at UCLA, he double majored in Astrophysics and English Literature before going on to graduate school in Astronomy at UT Austin.
When asked about his home town, he laments that "L.A. gets a bad rap" before excitedly explaining that he grew up about 15 minutes from the beach, 40 minutes from the city, a couple of hours away from decent mountains, and a couple of hours away from great desert. That, and he enjoyed beautiful weather nearly all year round.
"There aren’t many places in this country that can boast that kind of environment." He also scoffs at the notion that people in Los Angeles are fake or superficial, and that everyone is involved with Hollywood in some way. "Dude, that’s completely false. Most Angelinos have no affiliation with the entertainment industry whatsoever. By the way, have I told you I’m working on a TV series?"
Would you like fries with that?
In addition to his work in astronomy, Nairn plays the piano and the guitar "poorly." Over sports, he prefers games like pool, darts, and foosball. These pastimes and his prowess at them earned him the nickname ‘bar-game king,’ of which he is overly proud. He also has a passion for words and language and says that if he tires of astronomy, he’ll pursue writing. "I seem to be drawn to financially-unstable careers. I’ll end up the most educated burger slinger in the country."
The Cal Ripken of observing
Over the past several years, Nairn’s been on a mission to break the record for most time spent observing at the McDonald Observatory. For his Ph.D. project, a search for extrasolar planets, he monitored thousands of stars as often and for as long as possible to detect small drops in the amount of light coming from these stars. These small dips, called transits, occur when a planet passes between us and its star, partially eclipsing the star’s light.
In order to collect all of the data he needs, during his observing seasons, which can span eight months of the year, Nairn spent three weeks a month at the Observatory using the 0.8-meter Telescope. Because he spends so much time observing, he says he doesn’t have much sympathy for people who complain about their so-called long observing runs. "So much happens while I’m away. People start relationships, split up, get married, graduate, have kids. The world can pass you by. And you also really get to know yourself. Good thing I’m an okay guy."
Frayed ends of sanity
His epic observing runs cause some concern among his friends and loved ones, but Nairn manages to maintain his hold on reality and keep himself occupied on the long, cold nights by lugging his CDs, electric guitar, weights, and other distractions out to the Observatory with him. Coffee and karaoke also play a role in keeping him up at night.
"When I’m not careful, my singing leaves the control room with me. I’ve been told by observers in other domes that they can sometimes hear me screaming Pantera lyrics at the top of my lungs in the middle of the night while I’m moving my telescope." He also relies heavily on the kindness of friends and their willingness to read his wordy, meandering e-mails and send him replies, which provides him some of the only human contact while observing. "I basically live off of e-mail and weather loops," he says.
When asked to comment on the rumor that his colleagues and friends in the UT Astronomy Department started a pool aimed at guessing the date on which he would go insane and commit some crazy act on the mountain as a result of his long periods of isolation, Nairn said, "My money’s on June 22."
Is there life out there?
"Of course there is!" Nairn says. "Don’t you read the tabloids?"
Nairn Baliber
Postdoctoral Fellow, Los Cumbres Observatory
Ph.D., Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin
B.S., Astrophysics, UCLA
B.A., English Literature, UCLA
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