This was my first time on a plane by myself, so as you can imagine I was quite nervous but it wasn't hard at all and both my flights were extremely uneventful. When I got off the plane the first thing I noticed as I stepped out passed the gates were the many waving signs that all said Earthwatch held by people who I found out were our group leaders. As I was walking towards them I realized that someone had gotten there right before me and it was the other Emily R!! We had actually been on the same planes all the way there. We met and had an hour to chat before the next guy showed up. I got there at around noon and we had a few hours to wait for everyone except one. Fe Fe was supposed to be on our trip but changed her mind and joined another program and it was too late to replace her. And then there were seven. Everything seemed so nice that I thought this can't be right and I was…..wrong. Everyone rocks!!! They are individuals and are not afraid to express themselves but are still amiable and fun. Our directors are cool too. First we have Frank, who is the leader of all the other leaders. He comes in off and on, last time I saw him I got money, but more on that later. Then there is Scott who is with us 7/24. He has a room at the hotel and generally makes sure we have things to do and food to eat and that we don't run wild through the Lab. Don teaches us different things like working with the telescopes and CCD imaging. John teaches us about our first project tracking the radius of the orbit of an asteroid. Corrie teaches us how to use this website. They are all with us off and on.
The first thing we did when we got out of the airport was take the scenic route to our hotel. The landscape is amazing!!! I am from New Jersey and for those of you who don't know it is crowded with many buildings, people, and things. And it is very flat. Here my first impression was, "Oh my God, it is so brown and lumpy out here!" It is very brown and lumpy, but it is so beautiful. There are mesas, hills, and canyons everywhere, very few man made structures in comparison with the nature that surrounds you. As soon as I could look around I was already planning my return trip. As we were headed to Fenton Hill, we stopped at the soda springs. They were amazing! First of there was a waterfall, so it was already cool. Then we followed a trickle of water up into the caves and found a hot spring that looked as if it was bubbling out of an overflowing bathtub. The rocks around it had an awesome pattern from years of being carved by water. Across the street was another trickle of water that was much hotter. Too soon we had to leave and traveled even higher up to Fenton Hill. Now I must be a little honest I did not expect it to be so disheveled looking and mice infested, but it was fun. We got to see the three RAPTOR systems and the original ROTSE. We got a good feel for the place and then we left to go to the hotel.
We are staying in a Best Western and the rooms are nice. The beds are huge and we have cable. I can even put up with the annoying Lobby music. They also have a pool and a gym. After we checked out our rooms Scott took us tot he grocery store that was literally next door. We bought water and different kinds of food to hold us over. Then we ate and watched TV to settle in to our new homes for two weeks!
Day 2
We woke up and most of us went to the continental breakfast provided by the hotel, but I ate cherries, crackers, and Ores. I know, I know so unhealthy. We journeyed to a Los Alamos building to get our badges. This took forever because Dan wasn't even in the server and their computers kept crashing. However, the badges wee worth the wait they allow us access to Canyon School and they look very official and cool. They have our picture and say U.S. Department of Energy Albuquerque Operations. After that we went to the Bradbury Museum to sit in on a lecture discussing the history of Los Alamos National Lab. Before we saw the lecture we got to walk around the museum. It isn't that big but it is chocked full of interesting things. The have a replica of Fat Man and many different displays talking about the bombs, energy and everything else that the National Lab deals with. The history lecture was interesting. Much of the information I already knew because my term paper was on the Hydrogen and Atomic testings. However, there were many facts I didn't know like that the lab had to redefine its mission after the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty came out. They did a good job too, now they worry ore about safety, national problems, as well as other things that contribute to the world.
After the lecture we went to a Chinese buffet. I didn't partake in the buffet, however, because many of the dishes contained meat, but I got a delightful dish called Snow Peapods and Water Chestnuts instead.
We got to use our new badges when we went to Canyon School after we ate. It is right across the street and the room we use is a computer lab, with iMac computers. Don ran our first lecture entitled CCD Imaging (charged Coupled Device). It was very interesting and informative and we even got to use a CCD camera and learn what constitutes saturation and the different types of images you can take. He also taught us all the basics on the telescopes that we are going to be using the Meades. We learned how to set them up and how to set it up so it aligns the stars properly.
We went out to eat dinner at a local restaurant and I got a very interesting vegetarian dish. It had mashed potatoes with corn and other odd things in the middle, spinach, vegetables, and rice surrounding it. The food took forever to come out but the tablecloth was paper and we colored on them with the crayons they provided.
Back to the Bradbury Museum to start our series of lectures. They began with Cosmology, which is the study of the origins of the universe. Despite my chronic confusion in trying to understand how she came up with the conclusions she had, it was very enjoyable and informative. I definitely came away with a better understanding of what we do and don't know. We don't know a lot, like what 95% of our universe is made of and 4% of what we do know is out there, we can't find it.
It was very cloudy but we decided to go up to Fenton Hill anyway, because we were dying to try out our newly acquired knowledge. We drove up and on the way came very close to hitting an elk. There was about three in the middle of the road when we turned but Scott's good reflexes saved the day. When we got to Fenton Hill the forecast predicted that it was going to clear up but that never happened we managed to get our telescopes set up and calibrated pretty close but it took a very long time. I learned how to better use my star chart. We looked at different Messier objects, some stars, and the moon. I liked M-31, which is the Andromeda galaxy. Finally, at around 4 a.m. we decided to stop came home and collapsed.
Day 3
I woke up missed breakfast again and ate cherries. Then we went right to Subway so I wasn't to upset. The line was almost outside the door, but it was good. After that we looked around the gift shop slash bookstore. I bought a shot glass from Los Alamos, a few postcards, and a present for Daniela. Then we went to Canyon school and had three lectures. First we learned about our project to predict the coordinates of an asteroid, by taking two measurements about a day apart. Then we did CCD color imaging, we took a picture of many different objects using different filters and then put them together to create a color picture. It was very close to actual color. Then Correy talked to us about our websites and how we needed passwords but we should just start writing entries and put them in later. After all that we drove to Gabriel's to eat. That is by far the coolest and best restaurant we have gone too so far. First of all the view around it is amazing it puts pictures and postcards to shame. We ate outdoors and our waiter was clever and witty. Also, they make guacamole dip right in front of you and it is really good. When dinner ended we drove to the opera. It was a nice setting and the opera was open air so behind the stage you could see the mountains during sunset. The opera we saw was the Barber Seville, which was good but for the first half we had no subtitles which was a bummer because I can't understand Italian. During the intermission the whole group clustered outside and we tried to find all the constellations that we were looking for the night before and we did a fairly good job. The last half of the opera had subtitles, which was good so I could actually understand it. My favorite character was Figero. Then we came home and went to bed.
Day 4
Today is my day to do the journal so this personal journal will not be so long at all. I woke up almost too late had Nabina not been so persistent about me getting up. Then I got my hiking gear together and we drove to the Bandelier Mountains there we watched a short but corny video in the information center and headed out with water bottles in hand. Scott became Ranger Scott as he took us on about a three-hour tour. The area I was in was breathtaking! There were many ancient Plebu homes and we saw the pictures they had drawn on the walls and could even climb up wooden ladders to get inside some of them. We saw a few wild creatures such as chipmunks, Whiptail lizards, and Stinkbugs. I even learned many things about these ancient people and the way we lived. The climax of the hike (literally) was the 140 feet climb straight up to see the ceremonial caves. We climbed up on ladders! I was so tired by the time I got up there that I didn't really look around, however, I was just so happy I made it up there I couldn't really complain. After that we went to a pizza joint to eat and then went to get passwords to be able to put these entries on the Internet. It was strange because the passwords were so complex that most of us had a pretty hard time making them. They had to be something that wasn't in a dictionary of any language and needed numbers and other things. Then we went to another Astronomy Days Lecture about impacts of comets and asteroids with earth. I did learn a lot but our speaker was not a very good public speaker. It was obvious he knew a lot but couldn't always convey it to the group. Later on that night we drove to Fenton Hill and made our first sketch of the Asteroid. It was very frustrating at first but it got easier and easier as I went along and finally finished my sketch and understood what I was looking at. We were there till around 4 in the morning.
Day 5
Since we had such a late night because it takes and extra hour to get home, we ate around 1:45 at Canyon Bar and Grill. The only vegetarian thing they served was their salad but it was good so I didn't complain. Then we went to Canyon school to analyze the data that we had collected the previous night from the asteroid with help from John. We measured our sketches and used the ecliptic longitude from two stars nearby to calculate the longitude of the asteroid and took the average and standard deviation of all of our scores. After all of that we had a break and proceeded back to Fenton Hill to finish our sketches for the asteroid. It took awhile because that was the first night I aligned the telescope myself. I did most of it alone with help from Mike, Don and John occasionally. Then I sketched the wrong view twice and put my zenith in the wrong spot, but I finally got it and felt so happy that it made all the work more worthwhile. Scott bought food so we could have dinner up at Fenton because we arrived very early to make sketches and see the space station go overhead, which was visible to the naked eye.
Day 6
We woke up late again because of the very late night at Fenton. We ate at Hill Diner and I had a very good veggie burger. After that we went to Canyon school to analyze our seconds night's worth of data and find the conclusion. At first I was upset because my final answer was so skewed that it threw the average and standard deviation off considerably. However, Mike realized that two of my stars had been mislabeled. Since the previous night I had originally mislabeled my zenith I had reversed the two stars that were next to the actual asteroid and Mike caught that after that my data closely matched the groups. Then we went to an awesome lecture about water on Mars. It was presented well and showed the many different ways they try and discover water and why the scientific world holds the theories it does. We went to a concert on the ski hill. The music wasn't that bad but we had more fun listening to Don than the music. Later that night we got to spray paint this big rock for Galen Gisler's return. We had only met his family so far but not him. I helped Gavin Spray the rock white but he did the rest. Then I wrote Earthwatch 05 on the sidewalk. I cop drove past but didn't say anything because everyone paints the rock for one reason or another.
Day 7
We went to Santa Fe today! The guys didn't have that much fun, because they got bored very quickly, but I had a great time. Before we got up there we went to a little family-run restaurant to eat called. It was very charming. Then when we get to Santa Fe we went to the Georgia O' Keefe Museum. It also had some pictures by Andy Warhol. I like O' Keefe a lot more now than when I went because before I had never seen so many of her paintings. They had some good quotes by her on the wall near her pictures. I don't like Andy Warhol's work but his quotes were funny. After that we went to an Art Show outside where there were many different types of art that all shared one thing; an expensive price tag. Then we walked around the plaza looking for sterling silver jewelry. It took me a while but I got a necklace and a purse. We wandered around and looked at shops until it was time to leave. We then met up with Galen at the hotel and went out to eat with him and his family at Hill Diner. He is really nice, smart and has interesting trips. He was in Crete and Spain doing research and has been offered a job in Norway. Later that night we went up to do the Binary Star project to measure seeing. We got to the point where we could be down to 2.2 arc seconds, which is pretty good. I worked with Emily and Nabina and we were laughing the whole time and joking around but we did get a lot of work done.
Day 8
We woke up around 1 p.m. due tot the late night observing. The group ate at Sonic Burger except for the two vegetarians; we ate at Subway along with Scott. We have gone there so many times Nabina and I have actually made friends with one of the servers. We went back to the hotel then to Canyon School where we waited for Emily to show up. We worked on journals for a while. Don then gave a lecture on Radio Astronomy. This was to help us be prepared for the VLA trip. Then he talked a bit about the Binary Star project that we had done the night before.
Day 9
We woke up headed downstairs to the lobby. There we met Scott and headed down to Galen's party. It was nice to be able to relax for a day. Besides us and Scott, John and his wife Donna, Don, Corrie, Eve, Steven and of course Galen's family: his wife Susan, his daughter Ellie, and his son Andy. Everyone from our group except for Mike, Scott and I then drove to the community pool for a little swimming. While we awaited them read some more of Devil in the White City. Mike played with some of Galen's instruments including the piano and the accordion. Galen had many other instruments including, a couple or recorders, two harps, a harpsichord, a guitar, a couple of maracas, some tambourines, a few drums, a flute, a piano, etc. When everyone came back I played some badminton and ate veggie burgers. Then we had some jam sessions with Galena and John on recorder, Mike on piano, and Ellie singing. Also on and off were Nabina and Katie on guitar. Then for desert we had some cake that consisted of one layer of actual cake then a layer of blueberry ice cream, then a layer of strawberry then vanilla and topped with cool whip and cut strawberries and blueberries. It was very good. We mingled for a while talked to Katie, Galen's assistant, and Donna. Then Galen through in the video "The Way Things Work", because we didn't have time to watch "Contact". I had seen the video before in the Modern Art Museum in Washington D.C. It is basically a huge Rude-Goldberg device utilizing chemicals and household items for its reactions.
When the movie finished we headed out to the fireworks, which within walking distance of Galen's house. We walked down a very pretty path and on our way and saw three planes doing stunts like rolling and diving. Scott thinks that they were just regular guys because Los Alamos has an airport for private planes and these planes were all different from one another. When we got to the fireworks we set down our blankets and I noticed a carnival next to us, so I went and took some shots. When I cam back I read until the fireworks started and they went on for a good while. When they were over we walked back and talked some more. We found out that John is a beast at the Rubic Cube and can get it all together in a 1 min. and 53 sec. By then it was rather late and we went home watched some Family Guy and I took a long walk and read.
Day 10
This was our field trip day where we got to go to the VLA (Very Large Array). It took somewhere of about three hours to get there. We ate lunch at Socorro Springs Restaurant, it was very nice and I had a personal veggie pizza. Then we drove a lot more and by "we" I mean Scott. The rest of us slept. Finally we made it to the VLA. We drove up and went to the visitor's center. We watched a short film explaining about the VLA and Radio astronomy, which we already knew a lot about thanks to Don. Then we went through some displays explaining the birth of radio astronomy, what it can do, different arrays, the VLA and the VLBA. Our tour guide was a bit late in showing up but when he did we had an awesome tour. We all got hardhats and got to climb telescope 14, which has just been outfitted with new fiber optic cables and other things that will make each telescope ten times better in every category. We even got to climb up so we were standing inside the dish of the telescope itself. It was pretty awesome, and then we got the tour of the control center, which is slowly updating their equipment from the 70s to today. We also saw three telescopes that are being tested for an array that will be in Chile called ALMA. Then we drove to Steven's house and ate, before we went home.
Day 11
See group entries!
Day 12
We ate lunch at De Colores and there we met Todd who was very funny and nice. We had a lecture from Galen about the asteroid that we believed killed the dinosaurs. Then we had one from Todd about the neutrinos and how we try to measure them and find out about them. We had some down time in the hotel. Later that night we had a Star Days Lecture about Gamma Ray Bursts. It was really neato.
Day 13 We shared our presentations today and I was so freakin nervous the night before and the day of. We had to practice and I was really scared, but to be honest it wasn't bad at all. There were only like 2 new faces which at first was a relief but later I was a little sad. It would have been awesome to have it be public, oh well. Later we went to Ashley's pond for some country music but besides Nabina and Katie everyone spent the entire time working on their Rubik Cubes. I actually can get the one face done and understand them a lot better unlike before when I would just mess with them. Gavin has gotten really good and his best time was under 3 minutes. Then we went to Smith's to get a crapload of food and had a kinda party in Dan and Mike's room. It was awesome because we ate things like cookie dough and Ramen noodles while watching Family Guy and Futerramma.
Day 14
Last day. I am not sad yet because it doesn't feel like the last day. We went up to Fenton Hill because we had an amateur radio day. We were broadcasting off of Fenton and we were supposed to be able to talk to people about Earthwatch, but there was a contest going on, on the same frequency so we had a hard time getting through to anyone. Then Jim Wren gave us a talk about RAPTOR since he is the one who runs it. Later tonight we are going skating and having another room party!!!
I could end this by writing how sad I feel that this ending or how this is the beginning of another chapter in my life or any other corny thing I have heard, but I won't. I will however say something corny on my own. This experience has become one of the best in my life and I will always remember what I have learned and the people who were with me 7/24.
P.S. This has been haphazardly proofread.