Kelsey Louder's Blog 

My name is Kelsey Louder and I am from Mexico, MO. I will be a freshman at Truman State University in Kirksville, MO this fall.

July 6, 2008
Today I had to get up 4:00 because my flight from St. Louis left at 6:56. It was my first time flying alone so I was a little bit nervous. Everything went well, the only problem was the flight from Chicago was delayed 30 minutes. I met Erica while we were waiting for the flight in Chicago but neither of us realized that there was four other Earthwatch students waiting for the same plane. We all met up in Albuquerque and Aimee, Scott, and Don were waiting for us with Earthwatch signs.  We had dinner at an awesome Mexican restaurant in the airport and it was there we learned the value of the green and red chiles. On the drive to Los Alamos we stopped at Fenton Hill to see what it looks like and become acquainted with it. The drive to Los Alamos seemed long but it was beautiful, so that made up for it. This is my first time being in the southwest US so I love looking at the scenery. After we got to the hotel, we all went to our rooms and crashed. I get to room with Charlotte.  Everyone but Andrew and Chris W. went to eat at Sonic that night.  Andrew and Chris W. had already fallen asleep and they didn't hear the phone when Scott called. I was really surprised that it was some peoples first time eating at a Sonic...I was in shock! After supper we all went back to our rooms and slept. Everyone was mega tired from their flights and getting up so early (some people had to get up at 2 a.m.!!!) It was a good (long) day, everyone is getting along well and I think it is going to be a fun two weeks.

July 7, 2008
Today was an EARLY day!! We had to get up at 6:15 and had to leave the hotel at 7:15. Today was the day that we got our LANL badges. We met Chris F. at the badge office. We had a minor problem with the badges from the beginning. We had to have picture ID to get our badges and most of us thought that our drivers license would work but it turns out we had to either have a passport or a birth certificate....only Chris W and Charlotte had their passports with them. The rest of us talked, and played rummy and ERS while we were waiting for them to get their IDs made. It was a pretty fun way to kill time. We went to breakfast at Viola's Place after everyone got a badge and Chris F. went with us. After breakfast we went to the Canyon Complex and Aimee talked about different planets, stars, and some of things we are going to be doing while we are here. She used a internet program called Stellarium to show us what the stars will look like. It is a pretty cool program. After Aimee was done, Don came and showed us how to set up and align the telescope. It sounds like it will be a lot of fun. The only worry I have is trying to do everything he showed us in the dark with only a flashlight. We all went to lunch at the Chinese Moon buffet after Don was done. During lunch I found out that Aimee and I have one very important thing in common. I have Johnny Depp poster in my room and when she was younger she did too!! I thought that was pretty funny. After lunch we walked over the Bradbury Science Museum. It was interesting to learn the history of  Los Alamos and the research that the did and still do here. We watched video about Los Alamos when it was a "secret town". The movie had subtitles and they were pretty funny in some parts. Like during the part of the movie right before they showed the footage of the first test of the atom bomb that subtitle read "tension building music" we all were trying to hold in laughter. After the museum we all went back to Canyon Complex and Don showed us some pretty cool software that he has. We went back to the hotel to clean up and then we went on the walking tour of Los Alamos. It was awesome seeing all the historical sites in Los Alamos! We went to dinner after that and at dinner we gave Chris W. his birthday card and sang him happy birthday. That night we went to Ryan and Ben's room to play cards and we watched a little bit of the matrix. It was a fun night!

June 8, 2008
Our day started today with meeting Carol for the geology tour. When we met Carol she had already looked at our applications and had questions for us. She asked me about my trip to Europe last summer. We stopped at a lot of places on the tour and my favorites were: the Valles Grande, Soda Dam, and the place were we looked for fossils. I was really surprised that I found some fossils. We ate lunch in Jemez Springs and then we drove up to Fenton Hill. Jim gave us a tour of the RAPTOR telescopes and he explained exactly what each of them were used for. THe were some big telescopes but it surprised me how fast they moved. He also showed us the telescope that captured the naked-eye gamma ray burst. We left Fenton Hill and went back to the hotel to hang out until we had to be at the science museum for our first lecture. The lecture was given by Didier Saumon ad it was on Giant Planets, Hot Jupiters, and SuperEarths. It was a interesting lecture. Didier talked about the different methods scientists are using to find new planets and even stars that have planets orbiting around them like our sun. We all went to dinner after the lecture and we met Cathy there. I got to talk to Cathy about the work she is doing at LANL and it sounds very interesting.  We went back to the hotel after that to wait and see what the weather would do. They finally decided we shouldn't go up to Fenton HIll. Scott gave is some choices of things to do and we decided to go paint the rock in White Rock. We drove up to a rock that is right next to an intersection and it had writing on it everywhere!We took white spray paint and painted over one side of the rock. We then painted EARTHWATCH 08 really big on that side. After that everyone went crazy writing things and drawing pictures all over the rest of the rock. It was a lot of fun!! We went back to the hotel and Ryan, Erica, Nika, and Ben came to Charlotte and I's room and we all watched different comedians on YouTube. We had a fun time but I got tired pretty quickly, good thing we don't have to get up until 8 on Wednesday! :)

July 9, 2008
Today we slept until 8 and that was really nice compared to the other days. We went to breakfast and then we went over to Canyon Complex. Cathy and Chris were there waiting for us. While we were there Cathy gave us a lecture on what she is studying here in Los Alamos and her thesis. It was interesting hearing all the theories they have about mars and high impact craters. After she was done we were supposed to go to another lecture but we got lost on the way there and we ended up being to late. Instead we went to lunch early and we met Didier there. We had a fun time at lunch talking about Didier's lecture the night before and a whole bunch of other things. We went back to Canyon Complex after lunch and Cathy gave another talk about the Solar System. She talked about everything from how is was formed to the planets, to the astroids and comets in our solar system. When she was done we had another lecture given by Chris F. He talked about the life and death (mostly the death) of stars and also the different energy that makes up the explosion of a star. When Chris was done we went to Bradbury for our second lecture there. The lecture was about Gamma-Ray Bursts (what the RAPTOR telescopes are studying) and was given by Gabe Rockefeller. I was glad that we got to see a lecture on Gamma-Ray Bursts because everyone had been talking about them so much, especially the naked-eye GRB that happened this year on March 19. We went to Subway to get dinner after the lecture and then we walked over the park to listen to a band play and Gabe came with us. Charlotte, Nica, and I walked back to the hotel early because we wanted to rest before we went to observe. It was a little cloudy but we went to Fenton Hill anyway, Gabe also came with us there. When we got there Aimee used the laser to point out a few stars and then we went to get the telescopes ad set them up. Charlotte, Nica, Ryan, and I were in a group together. After we got it set up and leveled we tried to align it with Vega but the clouds kept covering it up so we had to wait. When it was finally somewhat clear we aligned the telescope with Arcturis and Polaris. After that we had the telescope find Jupiter on its own. It actually found it, which means we aligned it pretty well. It was so crazy seeing the stars in the telescope because they looked so bright but Jupiter was amazing! You could actually see the different colors on Jupiter and the four moons around it (they kind of looked like stars but smaller). I decided to draw Jupiter and its moons so Aimee taught me how to use Jupiter's diameter to measure the distance between the moons. It took us thirty minutes to actually draw the picture because the the clouds kept covering Jupiter. While we were waiting we sat around and talked. Our decided to name our telescope Sylvia with the janky eyepiece. Once we finally got the picture drawn we looked at Jupiter some more but then the clouds came in and it was almost completely overcast. We waited until 1ish and then decided to leave because we couldn't see anything. As soon as we left Fenton Hill we loked up and the clouds were clearing, just our luck. It was okay though because i think we were all pretty tired (i know i was). We got back to the hotel and i got to bed around 3 am. It was an exciting night observing and i can't wait to go back!

July 10, 2008
We slept in until 10 today because of the late night observing last night. After we got ready we went to El Parasol to eat lunch. We had some time to kill before we had to be at Canyon Complex so we decided to go to the bookstore next to the Bradbury Museum. We all looked around for a while and I bought my dad a book called " The Making of the Atomic Bomb." When we got to Canyon Complex we blogged for a little while and then Aimee and Chris gave a lecture. Aimee talked about Naked-Eye astronomy and then Chris continued with Newton's Laws, Kepler's Laws. and the different equations we will be using to calculate the mass of Jupiter, as soon as we get enough drawings of the moons. We went straight from Canyon to Bradbury to see a demonstration (making a comet) and look in a digital star lab. When we were done with that we had our third Astronomy Days lecture, given by Aimee about Supernovae. we went to dinner after that at a restaurant that is located at the original entrance to Los Alamos. When we were dome with dinner we went back to Canyon Complex. Don gave us an intro to radio Astronomy since we are going to the VLA tomorrow. We were at Canyon until like 9 ish. We planned to go to Chris and AImee's to observe Jupiter and get some drawings but it was way to cloudy. The only thing you could see was the moon. So we went back to the hotel to get some rest. We have to leave tomorrow around 8 to go to the VLA. It's going to be a very long drive. Nica, Charlotte and I  are going to watch Don Juan DeMarco on the way there to pass the time.

July 11, 2008
Today was the day that we saw Very Large Array radio telescopes. The drive was four hours. We watched Don Juan DeMarco and that took up like half the time. After that i tried to sleep for most of the trip. we stopped in Soccoro for lunch and then went on to the VLA. We got there and watched a movie on the history of the VLA. We then got to tour the visitor center and the building that has all the control rooms in it. It was raining most of the day and some lightening was spotted so we weren't allowed to going up into a dish. I was very sad about that. We went up right next to one but that was as close as we got. It was still really interesting. We left the VLA and had dinner on the way back to Los Alamos in Santa Fe. It was such a cool restaurant! They made the guacamole right at the table and it was really good. Today was Nica's birthday so we gave her a card and sang her happy birthday. Later on when we were eating dessert the people that worked at the restaurant put a sombrero on her head and sang to her in spanish. We again planned on going to Chris and Aimee's to look at Jupiter but of course i was too cloudy to see anything, so we went back to the hotel. Nica came to Charlotte and I's room that night and we watched the first ad second episodes of "Secret Life of an American Teenager" on youtube. It was a lot of fun hanging out and getting into the TV show together. Tomorrow is laundry day and we get to sleep in until nine!!!! YAY! :)

July 12, 2008
Today we got up around nine and then went to go do laundry. We had to sit around and wait for everything to get done and then we went to the Hill Diner again for lunch. We even had the same waiter and he remembered us. It was pretty funny. After we were done with lunch we went to Canyon Complex and Gabe was waiting for us. He talked to us about computers and we got to rip open a couple of computers and see what was inside. I had never done that before, so I thought that was cool. After that he taught a few basic things about programming/coding. Most of it i didn't understand but i was slowly getting the hang of it. When we got done at Canyon we went to Don's house for a quesadilla/movie party. Gabe and Kathy came too and we got to meet Kathy's boyfriend, Vic. It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of really good food. We also got to see Don's antique calculator collection ( i took at lot of pictures to show my dad). We all made quesadillas on Don's awesome quesadilla maker and after that we watched Contact. This movie has become an EarthWatch staple because part of it was filmed at the VLA. It was cool seeing all the places in the movie and then realizing that we had been there the day before. I really liked the movie but most of all I liked everyone commenting on the movie as we watched it. It made me feel like I was at a movie night back home with all of my crazy friends (i am def making them watch this movie with me.) After the movie we had banana splits and then we went back to the hotel. We were going o observe but again it was too cloudy! I was tired so i went right to bed when i got back to the hotel. I had a really fun night hanging out with everyone at Don's.

July 13, 2008
Today Nica and I got up before everyone else and went to church. When we were done everyone picked us up and we went to Santa Fe. Our first stop was the Georgia O'Keefe museum. I love looking at her paintings. There was also photographs taken by Ansel Adams in the exhibit and his pictures was amazing. There was this one picture of a thunderstorm and it was my favorite. After we got done at the museum we went to the plaza and went our separate ways for a while. Charlotte, Nica, and I went to look for jewelry and i found a necklace that was handmade by the person selling it. I thought that was pretty cool. We then went to get some ice cream and looked around a toy store. Then we met up with everyone again and we went into the Chuck Jones gallery. There were even some Dr. Suess pictures in the gallery. That gallery was a  lot of fun tot look at. ON our way to Scott's house we went down Canyon Road where all the galleries are and we also stopped at a sculpture garden. We finally got to Scott's house and as soon as he told us there was a pool table we were all there. The guys played a game and then the girls. Charlotte and I won!! Everybody else came around six and then we ate supper. Scott's girlfriend made Lasagna and it was really good. Later that night the eight of us ended up watching Legends of the Hidden Temple and getting pretty into it. I used to love that show . After a while we all gathered downstairs and decided even though there were a some clouds we were still going to try to observe. We ended up going to Aimee's house because there were more clouds than we thought and we didn't want to go all the way up to Fenton HIll. We ended up being able to sketch Jupiter a couple times and getting to look at the moon. Looking at the moon was awesome because you could see the craters and the surface of the moon. We went back tot he hotel around 12:45 and i went to bed. I was exhausted and we have to get up at 8:45 tomorrow!

July 14, 2008

Today we woke up and were at Canyon Complex at 10:00. When we got there we blogged for little while and then Aimee started to tell us about what our presentation will be like on Friday. After that we all got started figuring out what we wanted to do and assigning things to people. I am really glad that we are getting started early. We left for lunch and we had Thai food. I love Thai food and i was so excited that we got to have some. We went back to Canyon Complex after lunch and Gabe and CHris taught us more about codes. They had written one that we could use to calculate orbit. I still don't completely understand everything but i can edit the code to make it do what i want. I thought that was a accomplishment. It seemed like we were at the Complex FOREVER!!! To pass the time Charlotte, Nica and I payed catch with a stress ball and talked. We didn't understand everything as well as everyone else, so while they messed around with codes we just sat there. Finally we left  Canyon and went to a really good pizza place for dinner. We went back to the hotel and hung out for an hour while we waited for it to get dark. We all got in the van around nine and decided that we were going to go to Fenton HIll. As soon as we were getting ready to leave we saw lightening so we didn't go anywhere. Nica and Erica came to our room and we had Hot Chocolate and watched TV. I finally went to bed (a little bit early for once) hopefully i will be well rested for tomorrow. 

July 15, 2008

Today we went to Bandelier National Monument first thing in the morning. It was was a fun hike. My favorite part was climbing all the ladders and getting into the caves. We al hiked to the alcove where you have to climb 140 feet (four ladders) to get up to it. I got really climbing those ladders but it was worth it. On the way down i feel on one of the "sketch" steps and i rolled by ankle. I hurt really bad but i still had to climb down a small ladder and walk a mile to the van. When we got back to the van i put ice on it and it feels better now. We went o get subs for lunch when we got back to Los Alamos and then we killed some time at the bookstore. When we were done there we went to Canyon. Aimee and Gabe were there and they had a problem waiting for us that we had to use the orbit program to figure out. Charlotte and I were in the same group and we got off to a rough start but once Gabe helped us we got the hang of it. It took us two hours to figure out but we were proud of ourselves when we did! When we were done at Canton we went back to the hotel and hung out before we had to go to the lecture. At 5:00 we went to Bradbury and Steven Deihl on Galaxies. We wen to dinner at the Hill Diner after that and Steven and his friend from Germany came with us. It was fun getting to talk to Steven and his friend. After dinner we went to the hotel and waited and hour for Scott to call and tell us what the plan was. After an hour he called and said we would wait another hour. Charlotte and I were convinced that we weren't observing because it was raining but Scott called and said we were going to try. Gabe road with us to Fenton Hill and we met Don and Kathy there. We were there until a little after three and i got 5 drawing of Jupiter and the moons. I considered it a very productive evening. We got back to the hotel around 4:00 and i went straight to bed. I was SO tired, but i was happy that we finally got to go up again.

July 16, 2008

Today we got up at 11:30 and then went and got lunch and ate it by Ashley Pond Pond. After lunch we went to Canyon Complex . When we got here Aimee and Gabe talked to us about how we were going to use the dtata that we have or Jupiters moons. We all showed eachother our pictures and we diecided how to enter it into the computer. Charlotte, Nica, and I were working together. By the end of the day we had put all of our data into the computer ad ade a graph of it. After we did that we saw some sort of pattern that could be a sine wave in io's orbit (which is good). So we just plotted io's path and we plan to start guessing masses and velocities tomorrow. We went back to the hotel around four ad hung out for an hour or so until we went to a lecture at Bradbury. The lecture was on High Energy Astrophysics and given by John Pretz. After the lecture we went to Des Colores to eat with John and a few other people. We had a group of 21(we make new friends everyday here)!! Earlier today a representative from the Durfee Foundation, Daniel, came and he has been with us all day. After dinner we went bakc to the hotel to wait for the plan. While we were waiting Charlotte, Nica, and I wached the third episode of Secret Life of the American Teenager! Again we had a really fun time getting WAY to into the show. As Nica said YAY for youtube :) When our show was over, Scott caled and said we were going to wait another hour. While we were waiting we kept seeing lightening, so we figured we weren't going. But and hour later Scott called again and said we were going to wait another half hour. SO we decided to make hot chocolate and Erica came to our room and hung out to. Finally Scott came to our room and said that we weren't going (of course...just our luck).  So we finished watching Harry Potter and then Eirca and Nica went bakc to there room. Charlotte and I hungout for a while and then we went to bed. We were all pretty bummed that we couldn't go to Fenton Hill...we really wanted more data.

July 19, 2008

Today is our last day and it is kind of late so i am going to combine three days into one blog. We finally started to guess masses and velocities for Io and came up with a pretty decent plot. Our mass (for Nica, Charlotte and I anyways) was pretty off but we were proud that we got something to fit. When we got a fit we started working on the history potion on the powerpoint. Eventually everyone got points to fit their graphs and we all got to work on our parts of the presentation. We even had a PowWow to decide who would do what (where Ben gave me the nickname chief). we stayed at Canyon until 11:00 the night before our presentation, so of course we didn't go observing. The next day we got up and went to Canyon to begin working on our project again. We were ready for a dry run of in an hour and half. We did a dry run and then we went to lunch. When we got back we started fixing the problems and did another dry run! We worked out some more problems and then went back to the hotel to rest before the presentation. We got to Bradbury and there were only five other people there to see our presentation (besides the team of adults that have been with us the hole time). We were all upset about that but we had and AWESOME presentation. It was actually a really fun time. We went to the ski hill, ate dinner, and listened to a band after the presentation. No observing tonight...too many clouds (thats new). This morning we woke up and went to Fenton HIll to do the amateur radio stuff. It was a lot of fun. The first person we heard was from Kansas City and he knew where Mexico was. I was really excited. We talked to people from Tennessee, Michigan, Minnesota, Kansas, Wisconsin, California, New York , and of course Missouri. We had to stop early because of lightening. After that we went to Chris and Aimee's to decide what to eat that night. We went to CB Fox's and bought souvineers. Then we went to the store and got food to cook for dinner. We all went to Chris and Aimee's and made a greek feast...in honor of the greek astronomers before us. We watched galaxy quest and then came here to blog. We had to say bye to Gabe, Cathy, and Vic when we left and it was sad. I had such an awesome time and even though i am ready to go home i will miss being here with everyone. I will miss the random comments and weird enough i will miss Ben killing jokes. I will miss watching Secret Life...with Nica and Charlotte and stealthy Gabe. These people are the craziest people i have ever met and i will miss each and every one of them! I met so many GREAT people here and i know i will go back home and say PREDAC or something and everyone will think i am crazy! EarthWatch taught me so much and i am so grateful for the opportunity!