Well,
after sleeping in[Yeah for sleep!], we headed to the Bradbury Science Museum
for Don's lecture on Radio Astronomy. Radio waves, we learned, travel very
well through the atmosphere and can penetrate dust and clouds, unlike light.
This provides for 24/7 viewing of signals:o)
Karl
Jansky, who worked for Bell Labs found radio waves coming from outside
the earth and sun, and a unit of flux strength is named for him - the Jansky.
Don
pointed out some areas where radio activity was high - Cassiopeia, Cygnus,
and Sagittarius.
He
then went on to talk about different telescopes - such as the ones in Arecibo
in Puerto Rico being used for SETI:o) [Random Side note: My computer at
home has seti@Home running on it - and it's analyzing data from the Arecibo
Obs. all the time:o)]
Then,
Don gave a spiffy demonstration of interferometry:o) Interferometry is
using a bunch of receivers and using the fact that the radio wave will
hit it at different times and taking all the data and figuring out what
the wave looked like. Anyway, we got to actually see, with the help of
some overheads, how exactly the wave would pass through the different receivers
and how this amplifies the information we are recieving:o)
Well,
after the lecture, we hit the hotel to grab our swimsuits and then went
over to Galen's house. Most of us - except Jim and Steve and andy who stayed
behind to play chess[what a surprise;)] - then went to the community pool
for some swimming:o) We played some basketball in the pool:o) But then
it was time for lane swimming or something and we had to get out.
We
then headed back to Galen's house for food and some of us then went out
to play badmitton:o) This resulted in many birdies on the roof and in bushes
and trees....;) It started raining while we were out there and we got a
pretty rainbow:o)
We
went inside for desert and some playing with instruments:o) Galen had pulld
out some recorders, a trombone, a conch, a harp... We tried to play and
sing Pie Jesu:o) Christine pulled out her guitar for some sing-a-long -
breakfast at Tiffany's, Puff the Magic Dragon, Blowin' in the Wind, etc.
We then started Contact - a nice movie to tie in the the afternoon's radio astronomy lecture and a nice prep for our visit to the VLA:o)
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This page last updated November 13, 2000.