Hi, my name is Michael Chen and I am from Portland, Oregon, although I
moved there from Phoenix, Arizona. I was originally assigned to a
different Earthwatch Project called "Mapping Bacteria Across a
Landscape," as I am mostly a biology based person. However, I am
extremely happy to be here in Los Alamos, and glad that I could
experience Earthwatch--Transient Phenomena in Astrophysics.
June 17, 2007
After a 3 hour layover in Denver, security problems with the new 3
ounces of liquids rule, and nonstop turbulence to Albuquerque, I
didn't exactly enjoy my first go-it-alone plane flight. And then, in
New Mexico, it was extremely HOT and I saw more brown in my life than
ever before. The buildings are brown, the ground is brown, even some
of the food is brown...ish. I found the Earthwatch group easily and
Clare was the only one who was already there. Apparently, Steven was
also on my flight, but I didn't see him. So, while we waited about 30
minutes for the rest of the team to arrive from Chicago, I played
Egyptian Ratscrew with Cathy and Clare. However, as we were playing,
the rest of the team missed us because they arrived early, and we
weren't paying attention. But then we caught up with each other and
went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in the airport. After dinner,
we went off on a one and a half hour ride to Los Alamos. On the way, I
actually saw the night sky with actual stars. At the Best Western
Hotel, I felt like I was attacked by a whole swarm of moths. They were
everywhere-even in our rooms...And then we found out that our rooms
were all over the hotel. The first day was a lot of sitting around and
the group seems kind of quiet, but I was already excited for what was
to come.
June 18, 2007
I didn't sleep too well because of the moths, heat, and early wakeup
call. We went to the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to get our
official badges. It was very crowded in the waiting room and we were
all standing there when all of a sudden, Katie fainted-face first. It
was scary and someone called 911, with a whole medical response
complete with several firefighters and medics. We found out that she
was fine and fainted because of the altitude and lack of food. After
breakfast, we played some cards and Set while we waited for Katie to
be released from the hospital. She still needed her badge, and while
the rest of us waited in the lobby, a huge beetle somehow crawled onto
the back of my shirt. Andrew flicked the thing halfway across the room
while Pia and Clare nudged it out the door. Next up, we went to Canyon
school to learn about CCD cameras, which was very interesting. After
lunch at Subway, we visited Bradbury Science Museum for the first time
and learned about secret codes and the history of Los Alamos. I didn't
know that Los Alamos was such an important part of WWII. We returned
to Canyon School and learned some more about the telescopes that we
were going to use up at Fenton Hill. We went to dinner at the Pyramid
Cafe and started some of the ice breaker games, such as "Whose
triangle is it?"and "Moon"as most of us were still quiet. On the way
up to Fenton Hill for the night, we started telling lots of riddles to
pass the time. When we got to Fenton Hill, we saw the new RAPTOR
telescopes and just played around with the telescopes that we learned
about earlier that day. The good thing was that we had a half night,
and got back to the hotel at around 12:30. It was a very busy and
tiring first day, but very fun and exciting.
June 19, 2007
Luckily, we got to sleep in and ate breakfast at around 9:30. Since
our room wasn't cleaned yesterday, Steven and I went to Clare and
Katie's room to play Mao while the maid cleaned. It was very amusing
as I was the only one who knew how to play. Later, we went across the
street to Canyon School to learn about the Asteroid project from
Cathy. Then we went to lunch at El Parasol, where we ate in the
park. After lunch, we returned to the school to learn about time and
geocentric cosmology from Frank, where he finally revealed a little
about retrograde motion. Then we got on the van and went to visit
Scott's school to get a soccer ball and look at the canyon. By the
time we got back, we decided to play Mao with the whole group. Once
again, it was amusing, but Andrew, Leah, and Pia caught on quickly,
which made things interesting. Dinner was at Lemongrass, a Thai
cuisine, where their Pad Thai was MUCH different than what I am used
to eating. Then we went to Bradbury museum again for the first lecture
about Structure Formation of Galaxies with Brian O'Shea. We went up to
Fenton Hill again, with even more riddles, and everyone is pretty good
at them. Then we got a tour of all the RAPTOR telescopes on the site
and started to try and find Metis 9, even though it was kind of cloudy
near where it was supposed to be.
June 20, 2007
Today, we woke up after another short night to meet with Carol for the
Geology tour in the Jemez Mountains. We got to learn about the
Caldera, different types of rocks (pumice, limestone, etc.), and visit
soda dam. It was really exciting to look for fossils and climb onto
soda dam. We stopped for lunch at Los Ojos in Jemez Springs, where in
the middle of our meal, some police officers came and grabbed a man. I
wonder whether he got into trouble or not. We then drove back up
towards Fenton Hill to see Milagro and learn about what it does. It's
too bad that the project is going to be ended soon. We returned to the
hotel and prepared for Frank's lecture about Heliocentric
Cosmologies. Then I played some soccer with Andrew. We had free time
for the rest of the day because of the lightning and unclear skies, so
the group got together and played some more Mao, where I had to sing
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star over and over. When everyone left, a
grasshopper accidentally got into Clare and Katie's room, which scared
everyone. It jumped about 5 feet each time and was bouncing
everywhere.
June 21, 2007
The first thing on the agenda for today was the hiking trip to
Bandelier National Monument. When we got there, we looked at their
small museum in the visitor center to get the context of the history
of the area. Then, we began our hike down the main trail, where we got
to see some ruins of the Pueblo homes. It is so amazing to see them so
well preserved for all this time. We went up the trail and climbed
along the cliffs that border the canyon and climbed up into some of
the caves that the ancient people used to live in. After this, we
hiked about half a mile to a ceremonial cave, where the entire team
had to climb 140 ft on wooden ladders up the cliff to reach. The view
from there was so beautiful and well worth the hard climb up and
down. We walked back to the visitor center and went to lunch at Canyon
Bar and Grill and played some pool while we waited for our food
because it was free pool day. After lunch, everyone except Steven
walked to CB Fox, Metzger's Hardware store, and Otowi to get some
Frisbees and hacky-sacks (one for everyone thanks to Andrew) to play
around with. John was able to talk to us today about the data we
needed to collect for the Asteroid project, and we learned a lot about
some of the mistakes we had made earlier. Leah, Andrew, Katie, and I
went out to play Frisbee while we were waiting for Frank to
come. After Frisbee, we went back to Canyon School to play some
hangman, juggle some more, and play some hacky-sack. Then, Scott went
to Smith's to buy us sandwich making materials, including fluff. Frank
then gave a lecture about Light and Atoms, which was very
intriguing. I really like his lectures the most. We were going to go
up to Fenton Hill to hear some radio waves from Jupiter, but Don was
already up there and reported that the rain and lightning was too
dangerous, so we decided to go to Cathy's house. At Cathy's house, we
ate some ice cream that we bought along the way at Baskin Robin's and
played Mao with Cathy and Scott. We played that for almost the whole
night and switched to Set, but by then, everyone was exhausted. Time
has passed by so quickly...it's already one third of the way over.
June 22, 2007
After a group breakfast, the seven of us walked over to Canyon school
to learn about the basics of radio astronomy from Don. The lecture was
almost entirely new for me, but it was definitely helpful and
interesting. A short time later, a weird lady from the lab, according
to Pia (and the rest of us), came by to talk about the summer
internships at LANL that we might be interested in. After the lecture,
we went to China Moon for Chinese food, where it was very amusing to
watch everybody use chopsticks. Lunch was awesome, and after that, we
went to the Laundromat to do laundry. While the clothes were in the
washer and dryer, the whole group went out to the community park just
across the street to play soccer, Frisbee, and hacky sack. When
everybody finished, we went back to the hotel and got some free
time. So, we went to Radioshack to find some speakers, which cost us
ten bucks; one of the speakers was already broken, but we didn't find
out until evening. On the way back, we dropped by Baskin Robins and
Blockbusters. At the hotel, we played a few rounds of boggle and
watched some Harry Potter Puppet Pals again. Then we left for Bradbury
museum to hear a lecture about the first period of reionization-the
formation of early galaxies in the universe from Don Whelan. At the
lecture, that weird lady showed up again...She's kinda scary. Then we
went down the street to the park for the concert there. We had some
hot dogs and then Clare, Andrew, and I decided that it would be fun to
copy all the little kids there and roll down the grassy hills. That
was very dizzying, but extremely fun. At 9:00PM, we drove up to Fenton
Hill Observatory and practiced the opening of our presentation-a
Potter puppet pals version of our names. As Cathy and Don tried to set
up the radio telescope to observe Jupiter's radio signals (it was
cloudy, so observations were hard), the rest of us just stood around
in a "cornucopia of love" and enjoyed some music under the beautiful
night sky. We finally got the radio set up and tried to listen to
Jupiter, but all we got was some guy complaining about Turbo Tax and
getting in trouble with the IRS. Haha
It's midnight-to be continued...
June 23, 2007
After "hearing" Jupiter's radio signals, we switched to observations
for Metis 9 because the sky over Saggitarius cleared up a little. The
first sketches went by smoothly, so we went back to the ops building
to play cards. Katie taught Clare, Cathy, Leah, Pia, and I how to play
President. It's a fun game, unless you're always the loser (me). Two
hours passed by, so we went outside for the second observation to see
how far the asteroid might have moved. By then, it was about 3:30 AM
(our first long night) and we drove back to Los Alamos and slept. We
woke up at around noon and went to eat "lunch", where they served a
huge bowl of salad and alfredo. After lunch, we went to Canyon school
for an IMAX movie narrated by Morgan Freeman and a lecture on stellar
generalities. By then, it was already 5:00PM, although it didn't feel
like it, and we went to Don's house for a social. There, we played
some telephone and then charades-boys vs. girls. The girls are
CHEATERS, or Clare has superior ESP skills. But that was entertaining,
especially Frank's interpretation of the movie Babe. We had homemade
quesadillas and then we played some spoons and some more
President. Then we went inside to watch the movie Contact, with Jodie
Foster. It talked a little about the VLA, which we will be going to
soon. During an intermission, we made banana splits (first time for
me). After we finished the movie, we decided whether or not to go up
to observe. In the end, we determined that it was too late, and that
the weather might not cooperate. To be continued...
June 24, 2007
When we returned to the hotel, Clare, Katie, Leah, Steven, and I
played cards. We played a little of everything, including Mao,
President, B.S., and Rummy. In the end, we stayed awake until
4:00AM. Then we slept. ZZZZZZZZZZ....
Then it was "breakfast" again at Quizno's, where the sub lady was very
pushy...But after lunch, we drove down to Tsankawi, a part of
Bandelier National Monument to hike. It was much shorter than the
first Bandelier hike, but it was just as beautiful-we even got to see
the petroglyphs much closer and climb all over the rocky
surfaces. After the hike, we went back to Canyon school to listen to
one of Frank's lecture on Lives of Stars. We went back to the hotel to
get ready for the night on Fenton Hill, and so Katie, Clare, and I
went to the nearby convenience store to get some Slush Puppies and
other snacks. We went to pick up Don and Cathy in the Riddle Rider
(R2)...our van's name...and started to drive up to Fenton Hill. On the
way, we stopped by a restaurant to eat. After "lunch," we went all the
way to Fenton Hill and set up the telescopes. It wasn't dark yet, so
we sat around playing cards. Then we got out our cameras to take
pictures of the moon, Jupiter, and Saturn through the telescope, which
was awesome. And then it was midnight...
June 25, 2007
We tracked Metis 9 and took a two hour Canasta break. Finally, we took
our second sketches and got back down to the hotel at around
4:00AM. Clare and Katie invited Steven and I down to their room to
play some cards. We ended up playing Kemp, which was really
funny. After cards, we went to sleep!
When Steven and I woke up and met the rest of the group down by the
van, we saw that Andrew was missing-he felt just a little sick. So,
the rest of us went to Ruby K for some bagel sandwiches and
smoothies. We ate in the park at Ashley Pond, where the cups attacked
Steven and me. We went to Canyon school to finish analyzing the data
that we collected with John. In the middle, Andrew came back, and soon
after, we had a long session of intense mathematics and thinking. With
luck, all of us got our sketches sorted out, and used linear
interpolation to figure out the radius of Metis 9. At around 5:30 PM,
we left to go to Scott and Francesca's house for a party, where there
were 4 huge dogs, lots of hummingbirds, and millions of "buggies." We
explored Scott's house and then played a lot of cards and then Pit,
which is a loud game that simulates an open market, and then
Mafia. Dinner was absolutely delicious. We had lasagna and salad, and
then coffee cake with fruit. Observing was skipped tonight because
tomorrow, we're all going down to Socorro for the VLA!
June 26, 2007
When I woke up, my eyes were all red and it looked like I had rabies
or something. But Frank had some eyedrops, so it was all good. We got
on the car after breakfast at the motel and learned that two other
college kids were going to be coming with us to the Very Large Array
near Socorro. The drive was about 4 hours long, so I slept for some of
it. After that, Clare, Pia, Leah, and I played some cards, including
Go Fish, 99, and Hearts. Then we stopped by the Socorro Springs
restaurant for lunch, where Andrew, Clare, Leah, Katie, and I played
Canasta while we ate lots of pizza. Another hour or so drive finally
brought us to the VLA Visitor Center, and we watched a 15 minute
introduction movie. Then, we visited the gift shop, where most of us
got a bracelet to remember each other by. Dave Finley came and gave us
a tour of one of the older radio telescopes, and we got to climb up
it. After the VLA, we had another 4 hour drive back, where Andrew,
Clare, Katie, Leah, and I tried to play Canasta on the car. Team Sucks
WINS! Back at Los Alamos, we went to Smith's to get some ice cream
because Baskin Robins had just closed when we got there. Then we
bought a butterfly balloon for Scott, and waited outside his room for
him. He didn't answer the door, so Steven went to go check in Aspen
Lounge-and there he was, enjoying Happy Hour! Haha. We spent the rest
of the night hanging out together, and then it was time for bed (at a
normal-ish time)
June 27, 2007
We woke up early today to go to Santa Fe. The drive wasn't too long,
and we got a car tour of the city. It was even more brown than Los
Alamos, but the city was still amazing. The famous Canyon Road had
more art on a single street than I have ever seen. Then we went to
Central Plaza to split up and do some souvenir shopping. It was the
quickest 45 minutes of my life-there was so much to look for. We had
lunch at the Plaza Restaurant, and left for Los Alamos to practice our
presentation. We worked a couple hours on our presentation and went to
Bradbury for another lecture from Kunnegunda Belle. Afterwards, we
went back to Canyon school to eat pizza and learn about CCD
cameras. People were going crazy, so we stopped for the day and
returned to the hotel. At the hotel, we played some more Canasta, and
went to bed.
June 28, 2007
We had a good long sleep tonight and went to the Black Hole shop here
in Los Alamos. The owner was Ed Grothus, and he was amazing. For over
50 years, he has collected almost everything that has come out of LANL
and his shop is filled with lots of odds and ends. He was so excited
to meet us, and gave us a tour when I finally learned that it was his
birthday! Ed is now 84 years old and still going strong. After the
Black Hole, we went to the Laundromat to wash some more clothes, but
everyone except Steven went to CB Fox to get some souvenirs labeled
Los Alamos. We had lunch at Ruby Ks, and then we went back to the
Canyon school complex to practice our presentation. Then, we had a
Bradbury lecture from Vic about Dark Matter and various pieces of
evidence that show that it exists. It was a very interesting
lecture. Then, we all had lunch at the Hill Diner again (where they
serve humongous proportions). We went back to Canyon school again to
watch Zoolander, and went back to our hotel to play some cards.
June 29, 2007
At 1:00AM, we went down to White Rock to paint the huge rock as one of
the annual events here at Earthwatch. We covered up the local baseball
team's stuff with our awesome graffiti and labeled our names. It was
so fun. Mission RSF-complete! Haha.
In the morning, at around 10:00AM, we went and looked at the
successfulness of RSF and saw that it had failed somewhat. Then we
drove over to the Canyon school to practice our presentation until it
was basically perfect. Lunch, once again, was at Ruby K's or El
Parasol and we ate in the unbalanced bench of the park. After lunch,
we went through our presentation one more time for critiques and then
it was free time. We played some cards and then went for a walk to
Radioshack and Otowi. And then it was Judgment time...The audience at
Bradbury was small and our presentation was absolutely
GOLDEN. Surprisingly, there weren't many questions about our
scientific methods or questions in general, which was kind of a
relief. Then we went up to the Pajarito Mountain Ski Hill for another
one of those Friday concerts. There, we all climbed up the steep ski
slope up to where the ski lift ended, but Andrew and Pia went
farther. We hung out together, away from the rest of the community,
and had a great time. We went back down the slope and got some ice
cream. Then, we decided to join in with the dancing. Steven got
someone to dance with during the music. Good for him! And then we left
for Fenton Hill. There, we dismantled the radio antenna for Jupiter
and just hung out because the clouds didn't clear up enough. Sadly,
the journey is coming to a close.
June 30, 2007
It's the last whole day here at Los Alamos, and we have all decided
to meet and have a reunion every year. We went up to Fenton Hill in
the morning, which feels very different and set up the equipment for
Amateur Radio. After 4 hours, we contacted people from about 10
States, mostly from California (there was a fellow Oregonian,
too). Our last group activity was at the Church, and it was a good
good-bye party. We have to wake up early tomorrow, so I have to go
pack. This was an amazing experience that has flown by way too fast.
PAX-
MC out