Yes, it was inevitable. The 'real' LHC webcams.
Back to reality - as we all know by now, the initial LHC beam on was a success, with collisions to follow in due course after the final set of refinements are made to the machine. Then, hopefully, the data starts pouring in for the world to analyse!
To satiate your curiosity in the meantime, you could do some reading around the subject:
The CERN Large Hadron Collider: Accelerator and Experiments
http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.lhc/jinst
On the eve of the LHC: conceptual questions in high-energy physics
http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.4268
There's also lots (and I mean LOTS) of First Day media on the CERN site:
http://lhc-first-beam.web.cern.ch/lhc-first-beam/
http://cdsweb.cern.ch/collection/LHC%20First%20Beam%20Photos
http://cdsweb.cern.ch/collection/LHC%20First%20Beam
CERN's Central Document Server also has a growing archive of all LHC-related experiments at http://cdsweb.cern.ch/collection/LHC%20Experiments?ln=en, also including notes, papers and theses on the technology, concepts and experiments to be conducted. There's a video highlights package of the First Beam day on the LHC First Beam minisite (the direct link: http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1125916).
For those who can't get enough of the video goodness, CERN also have a raft of video footage, B-roll and interviews with key members of the LHC project on their CDSWeb in the videos section, all streamable or downloadable. Check them out here.
And if you've not already installed BOINC, http://lhc.intotheunknown.co.uk/2008/09/lhc-and-us-going-into-unknown-together.html and joined the LHC@ITU team... Well, go do it!
Oh, and there's some real LHC webcams here and here - and while I'm at it, here's some more:
More goodies coming soon!
Tags: cern, first beam day, lhcathome, multimedia, videos, webcams
