Hi everybody, my name is Katie Woo and I live in Groton, Massachusetts. I go to Lawrence Academy and will be a senior this fall.

June 17, 2007

My Earthwatch experience began with a flight from Boston to Chicago in which I first met Leah at the airport. Once we arrived in Chicago, we walked to a terminal on what seemed like the other side of the airport just as the plane was boarding. There, I met Andrew and Pia, who apparently had been waiting for hours on long layovers. We then boarded for the final flight to Albuquerque. We got there early and actually walked past Don and Scott before they had time to hold up the signs and everything. Clare, Michael, and Stephen were waiting with them. We got our luggage, put it in the car, and went for some Mexican food in the airport. Then we all got into the van for the drive to Los Alamos, which took about 2 hours. It was nice to look out the windows and see all the lights as we passed on the highway, and also the moon lined up with a couple other stars and planets. We checked into the Best Western and got our rooms (which are spread over across what seems like the entire hotel, kinda a bummer), Claire and I are rooming together. It's just the first day, but I can't wait for all that is going to come!

June 18, 2007

Well, today was definitely an experience. We woke up pretty early in order to get our badges to allow us to have access to all the facilities. We went at 7 AM and waited in the lobby for the place to open. At this point, I actually fainted and had to go to the hospital, but everything was fine and it ended up just being due to a couple of combining factors. Scott and I got our badges and then we all went to the Canyon school for our first class later in the morning. Don talked to us about CCD cameras and then we had lunch at Subway. We then got a chance to explore the Bradbury Science Museum. It had a lot of information about the two atomic bombs and how they were used in WWII after being created in Los Alamos. It gave me another view after all the recent stuff that I had learned in U.S. History spring term. We also saw a short movie about the history of Los Alamos and the secrecy that it was shrouded in during the early years. We went back to the classroom and learned more about how to set-up and use the telescopes that we would be operating for the rest of the expedition, and also about celestial coordinates. We had a bit of free time then went back to the classroom for the first lecture we would have (of many in a series) from Frank. It was called "Naked Eye Sky" and covered a lot of the basics of astronomy. We had dinner at a Greek Restaurant and played a lot of fun "ice-breaker" games and puzzles that kept us occupied for a very long time. Now it was time for our first trip up the Fenton Hill to look at the sky. It was about a 45 minute to 1 hour drive uphill through lots of turns and twists. Once up there, we set up the telescopes and waited for the stars to appear. When we finally started to see them, they were beautiful. We saw the moon in a waxing crescent, Saturn, Venus, Jupiter (and 3 of its moons), and many other recognizable constellations. Venus was partially blocked, similar to a moon's phase. The best part was, by far, looking at Saturn. It was amazing once we got it centered and magnified in our telescope. You could easily make out its rings, and it was unbelievable to think that we were actually seeing the planet. We adjusted the telescopes and also got a chance to just lie on the ground and look up. We put away the telescopes and waited to see the International Space Station (but it didn't show). Then we drove back to the hotel and went to bed.

June 19, 2007

Today we got to sleep in a bit (to around 8:30 AM). Then we went to breakfast and had some free time until our lecture at 11 AM. Michael taught Claire, Steven, and I how to play Mau, which was a really fun card game. Then Cathy gave us a lecture on the solar system. We went for Mexican food next , and ate it in the park at Ashley Pond's pond. We went back to the classroom and Frank gave us a lecture on cosmological time. Scott showed us the elementary school where he works and we picked up a soccer ball and played on the playground for a bit. Then we drove to a great view of the mesas and plateau's nearby. We had some more free time and showed everyone else how to play Mau, then we went to dinner at a Thai place. We went for a lecture on galaxies at the Bradbury Museum by Brian O'Shea, which was really cool. Then we went back to Fenton Hill and got a tour of the RAPTOR systems by Jim Wren. We started on the project to find the asteroid, but it took us a long time to align the telescope. We were also really out of focus at one point, but then we think that we found the right location at one point. One of the really interesting things that happened was that we were able to see the International Space Station and Space Shuttle orbiting very close to each other. Then we disassembled everything and headed back. On the way, we actually saw a mountain lion cross the road, which was wicked awesome (yeah, I know?).

June 20, 2007

Today we went on the geology field trip to learn about the history of nearby locations. Carol was our tour guide, and Cathy and Beverly (Scott's mother) also came along for the experience. We went to collect fossils and specific types of rocks that were formed when the land was underwater a long time ago. We also brought back some pumas (which is the only rock that floats). We went to Soda Dam and got to see the inside of a very cool cave, a waterfall, a hot spring, and also a lot of cool rock formations (some a billion years old). Then we had lunch in a nearby town and also passed an old missionary that was actually built into the mountains. We went to the top of Fenton Hill and got a tour of Milagro (basically a super huge pool of water used to collect certain particles to map the Milky Way). I saw a bear on the way back down the mountain, and we also visited an interesting rock that was the shape of a dinosaur. We had some free time then had pizza back in the classroom right before a lecture by Frank on heliocentric cosmologies. Jon O'Donnell also came for a bit and talked to us about a few things. The rest of the night we had off and had some fun times with everybody before getting to bed "somewhat" early.

June 21, 2007

Today we woke up pretty early and went to Bandelier National Park. We walked/hiked through old ruins and up onto the cliffs to see caves where people actually lived. Everything was built into the side of the cliffs, and then we walked up some really long ladders to a giant "cave" structure up high with a room built into the ground. Everything was so awesome and cool to see. Then we drove back into the town and had lunch and played some pool. We also had a chance to buy some frisbees and hackeysacks to play with later on. John O'Donnell gave us a talk on our data for the asteroid and how to make sure we improved our techniques to get more accurate results. We had some free time in which we went outside and also went on the computers. Then we had sandwiches and chips in the classroom before Frank gave us a talk on "Starlight and Atoms." Due to lightning and bad weather, our trip up to Fenton Hill that night was cancelled and instead we all went over to Cathy's house and played Mau and had some ice cream, which was fun. Then we went back to the hotel and eventually went to bed.

June 22, 2007

Today we woke up at around 9 AM, went to breakfast, and then had a lecture on Radio Astronomy from Don. We got to see our blogs and pictures on the website, then had a chat with a lady who described summer opportunities here in Los Alamos. We had Chinese food for lunch, then did laundry and played on a nearby field. We also got some speakers at Radio Shack (which don't really work), and got some ice cream and frappes. We played some boggle then went to the Bradbury Science Museum for a lecture on "First Light: The Era of Cosmological Reionization" by Dan Whalen. We then went to the concert in the middle of town and grabbed some food, it was pretty cool. Next, we drove up to Fenton Hill to listened to Don's radio telescope to hopefully "hear Jupiter." I'm not quite sure if we ever really heard it, but we did get a radio station with a guy complaining about his taxes,, which was funny. Then the clouds moved away so they decided that we should bust out the telescopes and work on the asteroid project. Before that, we had listened to a lot of great music through the speaker and just looked at the stars and "reflected on everything that has happened" (which was nice). We also quoted a ton of random movies while up there. We set up the telescope and took down the data at around 1:15 AM then went inside to wait for the asteroid to move. We played President for a while, then went back out at around 3 AM. We took down more data then put everything away. By the time we got back it was about 5 AM, so it was our first late night up at Fenton Hill, but it was also really cool.

June 23, 2007

We got to sleep really late today (which was good), and then we went to lunch at a diner that had really great food, and also huge portions. We saw an IMAX Movie and then Frank gave us a lecture on "Stellar Generalities." We had some free time and then went over to Don's house for a party. It was a lot of fun, we played charades and had a ton of creative ideas to outwit the other team. Then we all watched the movie Contact, which took place at the VLA, which we would be seeing later that week. We played cards and also got to create our own ice cream sundaes, which were very yummy. We decided against going up to Fenton Hill, and instead went back to the hotel and played cards for a while longer.

June 25, 2007

Today was another late start to the day. We had lunch then met at the Canyon School so John could talk to us about our asteroid data. That afternoon we figured out the whole she-bang for the orbit and all the mathematics that goes with (some confusing stuff at first, but also cool). Then we drove to Scott's house for a party, which was a lot of fun with cool games and hanging out. It was nice, then we drove back and got to bed "early."

June 26, 2007

VLA Day. Today we woke up at about 7 AM to have breakfast and leave for the Very Large Array Telescope in Socorro. It was a four-hour drive and we ate lunch along the way at a nice restaurant. We got there and explored the gift shop and saw a brief movie on the history of the location. Then we got a tour of the place and received hard hats so that we could actually climb up and stand within one of the huge dishes. It was awesome, the dish was enormous and very bright. Then we got a tour of the control room and how everything ran smoothly in order to operate correctly. We drove back and played some cards along the way. We also stopped at a diner for dinner. At about 10 we decided to grab some ice cream, but since it was closed, we ended up getting some at the food store to eat back at the hotel. We played some more cards and also gave Scott a butterfly balloon (which, I must say, he loves dearly). Then, we went to bed for getting up early the next day.

June 27, 2007

We got to visit Santa Fe today, about an hour drive from Los Alamos. We saw an old railway station, the famous Canyon Road, a long street of museums, and a cool art gallery with a lot of famous cartoon drawings. Then we went to the central plaza and shopped around for a bit. I've got to say that the city was definitely smaller than I expected, especially for a state capital. But I liked it better that way because you could look closely at more things. We had a bit of time to shop around and then we had lunch at a diner restaurant. That afternoon we worked on the presentation that we would be giving on Friday. We organized what we are going to say and who is going to say it, then we worked on it a bit. At 5 PM we gave a run-through of it. Leah and I will be covering the asteroid project in the presentation. We heard a lecture on the electromagnetic spectrum at the Bradbury Museum, then got pizza and brought it back to the Canyon School. We then worked with Don on our color CCD Camera image. We went back to the hotel and Leah and I crushed Michael and Andrew in Canasta. Then we had an intense conversation about religion and life, which was interesting. I did some postcards that night also before finally going to bed.

June 28, 2007

Today we went to the Black Hole (a huge warehouse and yard full of tons of stuff ranging from "junk" to old Los Alamos Laboratory machines). Ed gave us a tour, and he was really passionate about educating the public about the danger of nuclear weapons and how they are not necessary in our world. It was his birthday when we came (he was 84 years old) and he gave us a tour and showed us a movie. He also showed us a monument that he would put up in town that was a giant obelisk and really cool. We did our laundry and then got to go shopping in town for a little bit. I picked up some t-shirts. We went to Ruby K's again for lunch, because we love it so much. The smoothies are amazing. Then we worked on our presentation. We did another run through and then went to hear a lecture by Vic at the Bradbury Museum on Dark Matter. We went to dinner at the Hill Diner, and yet again, the portion was enormously large and overwhelming, but still yummy. We watched Zoolander in the Canyon School and also got supplies for our "side project" that night. We hung out until 1 AM and then all of us (except Andrew who was tired) went on an epic mission. We went to White Rock and spray painted the infamous rock with "2007 Earthwatch" and all of our names. We drove back to Los Alamos and "borrowed" some For Sale signs. Then, we went to one of Scott's friend's home to fork their lawn. It was in the middle of the night and we put hundreds of plastic forks into the lawn and set up the few for sale signs. It was super stealth and really fun. It was an awesome time. We were done at about 3 AM and went back to the hotel.

June 29, 2007

After breakfast in the morning we went to the Canyon School to finish our presentation. Before that we drove by our "project," but it was totally gone, which was a bit of a bummer. We went to lunch at Ruby K's for the final time and then ate at the park. Then we did a final run through of our presentation for that night. We had time off that afternoon so we walked into the town and went to Starbucks and the Ottowi Station. Then we went to the Bradbury for our final presentation. We set up, started the slideshow and the music, and waited for people to come in. Our whole presentation went really well, I think, and it was a lot of fun. Then we all left and pulled a prank by sneaking out of the van very quickly so Scott didn't know where we were, it was funny. Then we went to the concert at the Ski Mountain. It was really cool. We got glow sticks and climbed up halfway to the top of the mountain. We sat on the chair lift and it was pretty awesome. Andrew and Pia went all the way to the top and said it was a great view. We went down in the dark, which was interesting, and then got some ice cream and danced a bit. We hung out and Scott scared Leah and I with a "Danger!" We tried to get him back, and Andrew actually jumped over him from a picnic table. Then we went up to Fenton Hill and hung out because it was too cloudy to do anything. We drove back at 2 AM and then went to bed after a ton of weird stuff that somehow involved Clare's leg?

June 30, 2007

We woke up and went to breakfast and then drove up to Fenton Hill for the last time. We set up a huge antenna to do an amateur radio broadcast. We talked to a ton of people, ranging from Mississippi, Kansas, Minnesota, and California. It was pretty awesome. We had to speak in special jargon when on the air. For example: "CQ ,CQ, This is W5PDO with a special event from Los Alamos New Mexico, QRZ." Then we put everything away did another fun thing in the late afternoon, and came to Canyon School where we are now writing our final blogs. We'll have dinner later, a cool birthday party, then hang out with our final night together. L Tomorrow we will have to wake up really early to go to the airport and go home. I've had an awesome time here in New Mexico, and I will forever miss the location, what we've learned, and most of all, the many people that I've met and grown close to. Loves it.