As reported on the CERN twitter, http://twitter.com/CERN, the beam has been captured!!
They are now attempting the second beam.
This is showing a huge amount of faith in this machine. The LHC operators clearly feel that they are ready to start understanding their accelerator, this is confidence boosting and exiting news. I should note at this point that the LHC isn’t strictly accelerating these beams. It is storing the beams and circulating them from the SPS, where the LHC receives injected beam as part of a complex accelerator system.
The SPS can be seen on the previous post where I showed an overview of the LHC ring.
I’m back at my home in France now and can hear several cars all beeping their horns very loudly. I sincerely hope this is related to the great work of the LHC operators.
