The beams are up to power, they're aligned together, waiting for them to become stable...
It's astonishing that the two beams of protons were separated by only 3mm around the 27km ring, before they reached 3.5TeV each and were brought together in grand 7TeV collisions.
Now there are collisions but the experiments aren't switched on and the beams aren't stable. They're waiting until everything's perfectly aligned and stable before they insert protective collimators (in case something goes astray) and open the delicate detectors.
Collimators in, beams tidied, and now they're happy with the beam conditions they're going to declare it 'stable' and not touch any of the beam controls for as long as they can - they estimate 2 hours
Collisions! Data! Jubilation!
The data already being recieved are being described as 'beautiful' - I can't wait to see more, and perhaps to learn how to 'read' the image records. The webcast has included live collision record images from the ATLAS experiment, which I'll admit are pretty snazzy looking.
It's wonderful to see and hear the celebration and enthusiasm of such an incredible communal endeavour coming together.
Unfortunately my head hurts too much now so I'm going to have to stop writing and just listen to the 'cast. More later!
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