I will spare you all the horror of seeing my personal picture. If you're dying to see me, I'm sure I can be found on the main web page....
The official title of our project is Transient Phenomena in Astrophysics. You can probably guess how many times I had to explain to people exactly what I am doing in here New Mexico. Truthfully, I still don't know. But I'm catching on.
Day One June 18
The flight up to Minneapolis from Dubuque wasn't bad. The plane was small enough-I whacked my head about 10 times before I finally remmebered to duck. There was a little turbulence, but not enough to worry me. It was a little loud, because of the props. And for some reason there was this intermittent whining/humming sound coming from the door. Always a good sign. Minneapolis airport was very busy. I was a little worried at first- I had to make it from gate 69 to gate 10. For some reason, all of the walking moving-path like things weren't working. And just the day I decide to fly. Luckily my carry-on wasn't too heavy. I was able to make it to my gatge in plenty of time. I sat in a window seat, which was nice. There was a little turbulence as we descended to Albuqurque. I passed most of my time on that plane by listening to my cds and snoozing. That Metallica puts me right to sleep..very soothing!
There was a group of people waiting for me at the airport, so I didn't get lost right away. I took my bags out to Galen's car and then we went back to wait for the others to arrive. J.W., Holly, Ewen, Owen, and Corinne all got there about the same time. From there we headed out to the Lodestar museum.
At the Lodestar Museum we took a 3d tour-very cool! We also went into a planetarium and took a tour of all the constellations in the summer sky. After the museum, we walked over to the La Placitas restaurant, and some good old Mexican food.
Once we finished eating, we headed out for Los Alamos. I fell asleep most of the way. We stopped at the Valle Grande, an ancient volcano mouth. This mouth is like 30 miles wide!!! That's a huge volcano! Well we finally made it back to the Hilltop House Hotel, got checked in, and went to bed. It had been a long day!
Un Dia Dos June 19
Today was an early day..for me, at least. I got up at 6:00 to lift weights. That was okay for a while, but then the altitude difference really hit me. See, I'm from Iowa, where the highest place I'm used to is probably about 1-2,000 feet. I got pretty light headed, and I had to lay down for a while.
My first bad experience of the whole trip came at brekfast. Great huh?? Just one day into the project and I'm having a bad experience. It all started when I picked up a bagel, thinking it was a plain bagel. Nope. It was onion. Yuck!!! I had no idea onion bagels even existed, therefore I had no way to defend against them.
After breakfast we headed down to the badge office to get our LANL badges-boy, did we feel cool! I am a "C" clearance, which means I am nothing on the official ladder of importance. After we got our badges, we drove around the fire damaged areas of Los Alamos. It was amazing-total streets destroyed by fire. Some houses were lucky, and the fire jumped over them. Others were fried to a crisp.
After driving around for a while, we went to the Bradbury Science Museum. We attended lecture on the history of Los Alamos and how it became the site of the Manhattan Project during World War 2. We then learned about how the lab has changed over the years and what its duties are today.
We broke for lunch about 12 and headed down to Subway. A very good experience of New Mexico's culture, I'm sure. We went back to the museum and Don gave a presentation on the CCD camera. We learned all about it: how it takes pictures on the silicon chip, and how to set all of the options on it. We practiced taking pictures and working with shutter speed. We also practiced using the color settings.
Once we had finished that, we went out ofr supper at a nice restaurant acroos from the Bradbury Museum. I had the roast beef-very good!! After supper, we wetn back to the museum for a lecture by Ed Fennimore. He told us how the scientific method was basically wrong. He gave us a new idea on how to apprach science problems.
When the talk was finished, we went back to the hotel, and hit the hay.
Day Three June 20
Today was an early day as well. We had to go and take our GET tests so we could get pretty red tags for our badges. The test was all open-book, and on a computer. It was a breeze. I got 100%, no problem. After the test, we drove back to the hotel, and got ready to go to Santa Fe. The drive to Santa Fe took about 45 minutes. We walked around the Plaza nd looked at all of the small shops. At 1:00, we were able to get inot the restaurant as a whole group (all 13 of us!!) and we ate lunch.
After lunch, we drove down to the planetarium. The show was called "Searching for new Worlds." The title basically describes the show. Plus, (and I feel bad for this), I fell asleep during the show and don't remember it. However, I did think it was a good show for what I remembered.
Once the show was finished, we drove back to the hotel and took a break. At 7:00, Ed Fennimore gave his lecture "Gamma Ray Bursts." He described where GAmma Rays came from, how they were formed, and the porperties they had.
After the talk, Owen, Steve, and I walked over to Subway and got supper. We walked back to the hotle and got ready to go up to Fenton Hill. I made sure that I dressed warm. The drive up to Fenton Hill took about 40 minutes.
At Fenton Hill, we took a tour of the facilites. Galen and Don got out their telescopes, and we practiced aligning them in the night sky. We also got to see how the REACT telescope worked. Unfortunately, the sky clouded over and we had to close the telescopes early.
At midnight, we headed over to the main building for Don's talk on telescopes. It was an informal talk on telescopes, but not a talk for 1 in the morning. Too much information lost in the early morning.
Day Four June 21
We went to a lecture today by Harrison Schmitt, one of the last men on the moon. He basically gave us the run down of his Apollo mission, and how he trained for it. He also talked about future prospecting on the moon.
After we were finished there, we went to Galen's house to celebrate his 50th birthday. I even helped Susan make supper! I browned hamburger, and I felt very helpful! We also had cake. The best part was lighting all 50 candles. There was almost another Los Alamos fire! I took a lot of pictures. We sat around and relaxed, and had a really good time.
At about 8:00 we went back to the hotel to get ready to head up to Fenton Hill. At fenton Hill we got all of the telescopes out and got ready for observing. At first, I was kind of passive. But then I got on the small Meade telescope and starting searching for binary stars. Some binaries were quite far from each other; others were so close that they could not be visibly separated. It got pretty cold that night! Some people wanted to stay until 3:00, when Jupiter and Saturn would rise. However, we didn't quite make it that long. We went back home and crawled into bed...
Day Five June 22
I got up at 11-early considering we didn't get to bed until 4 AM. I was tired, but I had to get some laundry done. That was interesting, but I made it! I didn't shrink any of my clothes, or discolor any of them!
Once the laundry was done, we all headed over to the Bradbury Science Museum to discuss our schedule and work on the web pages for Earthwatch. We got our schedule worked out.
At 7:00, we went to a lecutre called "Life on Mars." Pretty much, all of it was a bunch of pictures. Once the talk was done, we went back to the hotel. Owen and I stayed up to watch movies, but that was about it. Talk about an exciting day!
Day Six June 23
Considering I went to bed about midnight, I was suprised that I could get up at 6 to lift weights. Luckily, I wasn't bothered by the high altitude or anything.
At 8 we all gathered in the lobby to tour an old Indian ground..called Tsankawi, over by White Rock. We started our tour by walking up a high path, which DID take the breath out of me! We hiked around a lot of trails and walked past some old ruins. There were shards of pottery all over the place. We saw a lot of fire ant hills, and they were fun to play with too. Steve put small bits of candy onto the hills and watched we watched the ants attack it.
After our tour was was over, we decided to go out for lunch. Since everyone was hot and tired, no one wanted to eat anything heavy. We decided to go to the LANL cafeteria.
After lunch, we went to the Bradbury Museum for Galen's talk on Galaxies and Cosmology. After Galen's talk, we went back to our hotel for a while.
At 7, we had a talk on the ROTSE telescope system. After the talk, we drove over and got to use the ROTSE telescopes ourselves. That was very interesting! Steve and I looked up a nebula in the Hydra constellation. After everyone had finished at ROTSE, we went over to Fenton Hill. I got to work on the REACT telescope and I practiced using the CCD camera.
We stayed until about 5 AM, long enough to see Jupiter and Saturn rise. Then, we went back to the hotel and fell right asleep.
Day Seven June 24
Today we got to sleep in. At 2, we went over to the Bradbury Museum for Don's talk on radio astronomy. After Don's talk, we went back to the hotel and got ready to go to Galen's party in White Rock. Before the party, we went swimming in the White Rock pool. It was a very nice pool, and the 10 of us started up a game of water basketball.
At 5 we went back to Galen's house for the party. The party was a lot of fun. Galen grilled chicken and pork. We ate and sang songs. Galen got out all of his musical instruments and people started playing and singing. Once the music settled down, we watched the movie "Contact". It got over about 11:30, and we went back to the hotel.
Day Eight June 25
Sunday was our nice day off. However, it didn't start that way. Holly and Christine called us at 7 and wanted us to go to church with them. Of course, we declined, choosing the much more tempting option of sleeping.
At 2 we met in the lobby to go to our tour of Bandalier National Monument. It was really neat to hike around and see all of the caves. I took a lot of pictures! There was even a bear in one of our paths. We had to wait for the park ranger to scare her off with an air horn.
Once we were finished at the park, we went to Fenton Hill for a picnic. Donna had made all of our food, so we just sat out on the pad and ate.
After supper was over with, we started to set up for the night. We got both of the small telescopes out, and also got the REACT telescope ready to go. The night was very pretty, and very clear. The Milky Way was extremely bright. After it got dark enough, I was able to work with REACT telescope. I practiced using the CCD camera and we took pictures of the comet.
Unfortunately, the skies began to cloud over at 2. We stayed to see if they would clear off, but they wouldn't go away. We drove back to the hotel and went to bed....
Day Nine June 26
Monday, a nice day for sleeping in. I slept in until about 12, and then I got up to lift weights.
At 2, we went down to the Bradbury Museum and had a talk on the solar system by Steve Becker...I took lots of notes in my journal! After the talk, we sat around and waited to go out for supper. I walked down to the bookstore and bought two books on Quantum Physics-my favorite subject! At 5:30, we finally went down the Central Avenue Grill for supper.
After supper, we walked/jogged back to the museum (it was raining) for our next talk. It was on the Northern Lights, and it was very interesting. We learned about how the sun and earth react with earth's magnetic field and about the sun's activity.
At 8:15 the talk was over, and we went to work on the computers and our web page again. At 9 Owen, Steve, and I walked back to the hotel. Some girls in a truck honked and waved at us. Owen and I watched movies for a while, and then went to sleep.
Day Ten June 27
Oh, boy, today was an EARLY morning. I was going to get up at 6 to do some laundry and stuff, but the clock didn't go off. Instead (luckily) I woke up at 7. I had to hurry up to get some stuff done, before we left at 7:45!
We were supposed to have a geology tour of the Jemez Mts, but our tour guide was sick. Instead, we drove up to Fenton Hill.
At Fenton Hill, we worked on the radio antennas. Some of them were not working, and we had to diagnose them. We pulled out all of the equipment, only to have to put it away because it started to rain. We spent most of the morning in the trailer, working on the computers.
We broke for lunch and drove down to a restaurant called Spikes. It was just a basic restaurant, but it was nice. After lunch, we drove back up the Fenton Hill. We spent the afternoon working on the antennas and radio equipment. We also had a tour of MILAGRO, a cosmic ray detector.
At 5:30 we went back to Los Alamos for a talk at the Bradbury Museum. It was on Lodestar, and it seemed to me to be basically a sales pitch.
After the presentation, we drove over to Home Run Pizza for supper. However, they were closed because they ran out of bread! Instead, we went to the Hill Diner.
When we finished with supper, we went back to the hotel. Jacob need sleepy.....
Day Eleven June 28
At 8 we met in the lobby for out trip to the VLA. It was going to be a long drive-4 hours! I made a good pillow for Corrie on the way up. We stopped at McDonalds in Albuqurque for breakfast, but I wasn't too hungry.
In Socorro, we stopped for lunch at McDonalds. We were also supposed to meet someone from the Durfee Foundation. But...she never came, so we left at 1:00 in order to make out tour at 2 at the VLA.
Dave Finley was our tour guide, and he gave us the grand tour of the place. In the big barn, a radio antanna was being repaired. They always have one antenna in the shop being worked on, just for maintenance over the years. The size of this thing was unreal! We had to put on hardhats, and Dave took us up for a tour of the antenna.
We also got to walk over to the main ops building, where the real action occurs. Dave showed us where some of the movie "Contact" was filmed. After Dave's tour was over, we went over to the visitor's center. There was supposed to be a film showing, but it wasn't working.
For supper we drove back to Secorro, and ate at one of Galen's favorite restaurants. The food was great-I had fried shrimp and steak fries-but it was expensive!
After supper we headed home; it was a 3 hour drive back to Los Alamos from Secorro. I listened to my cd player-but Owen had other plans. He crawled under the seats and tied J.W. while he was sleeping. He tied everything together- cd player, pillow, feet, bookbag. It was amusing to watch J.W. cut himself loose when he woke up.
At 11:30 we finally got back to the hotel, and went to bed.....
Day Twelve June 29
We slept in until about 8. At 10 we went up to the Bradbury Museum to work on our presentation and decide who would talk about what. I chose to talk about the CCD camera.
For lunch, we drove to the White Rock overlook and had a picnic. After lunch, we went back to the building for Todd's talk on neutrinos. I tried to take notes in the back. The talk was very interesting, but also very scientific and full of information!
For supper we went to De Colores, a nice restaurant in Los Alamos. We were having so much fun talking and eating that time flew by-and soon Don realized we only had 5 minutes before our next talk started!
At 7 we had a talk on "The Living Sky". It was about how ancient people interpeted the action in the sky.
We were supposed to go to Fenton Hill, but it was cloudy, and the clouds weren't going to clear off until late. Steve and I walked up to the movie theater and saw "Me, Myself, and Irene." It was so funny! I think I'll have to go see it again here in Iowa.....The movie got over at about 11:15, so Steve and I walked back to the hotel and went to bed......
Day Thirteen June 30
Today was the BIG day-presentation day! We were up at the Museum by 9 to work on our talk. I wrote my part on the CCD camera with the help of Galen, who made sure I had all the technical info right!
At 1 we drove over to the Moon Room to give our presentation. It went very well! Christine and Holly made up some songs, and we also had audience participation. After our presentation, we drove to Santa Fe.
In Santa Fe, we were able to walk around the central square and look in the shops. I got a book, but there wasn't much else that interested me. Souveniers are so expensive! At 5:30 we met up and drove over to St. John's College for the Shakespeare show. We ate supper there too. The show was called "Measure for Measure." It was okay, I guess. I'm not much of a theater type person, but I did enjoy it.
The show got over at about 10, and then we headed home....