Ryan Nightingale's blog
July 6, 2008
July 7, 2008
So far we've mostly been getting to know each other and acclimating to the dryness and high altitude, except for Ben who already lived in basically the same climate. Most of us, however, had to get up at 2 or 3 am on Sunday so yesterday was mostly dedicated to travel and rest. We did get to see the observatory during the day, where we'll be tripping and stumbling around in the dark tomorrow night, if weather permits. Today we got our badges (with varying degrees of success) that will allow us access to the research facilities and computers, such as the one I'm using to write this message. On the computers we checked out a program called "Stellarium," which I'm totally downloading when I get home, which allowed us to get a preview of what we'll be searching for in the night sky. We also got a basic introduction on 10-12" Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, which we will be using in the pitch black night, so practice during the day will probably be helpful. Minutes ago we visited the Los Alamos Bradbury Nuclear Museum, which focused on the history and explanation of the Manhattan Project, Nuclear fission, and radioactive sciences in general.
June 8, 2008
Today we checked out the awe-inspiring geological features of Los Alamos with our guide, Carol. Imagine a plain 2 miles in diameter, with gigantic mountains surrounding the marshy plain filled with elk. This is the Jemez Caldera, one of the greatest features we were lucky enough to witness; a Caldera is an ancient volcano which, thousands of years ago, erupted, collapsed, and began to rise again. We also got a great view of all of Los Alamos from a mountain, a hands-on experience at Soda Dam, a natural wall spewing naturally hot water, and a photo op in front of "lizard rock." Afterwards, Jim gave us a description, explanation, and demo of the RAPTORs (RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response) up at Fenton Hill, our observatory location. Later in the evening we went to the Bradbury Museum for a lecture by Didier Saumon on the incredible recent discoveries made in the search for planets outside our solar system.
July 9, 2008
Today we received a series of lectures from Chris, Cathy, and Gabriel Rockefeller. Chris explained the supernovae, Cathy discussed water and asteroid impacts on mars, and Gabe delineated the details and possible explanations of Gamma Ray Bursts. We also were lucky enough to meet with Didier Samoun for lunch, which allowed us to clarify what we had learned the day before. After relaxing and watching the up and coming band "High Strung" play at the library, we got ready to go star-gazing. We got to see some constellations and Jupiter through the various clouds and glare of the moon, until the sky became completely overcast at about 2 am. Of course, in a pristine example of delicious irony, the moment we packed up and began driving back to the hotel the sky became perfectly clear. This experience, however, allowed us to learn how to align and use our telescopes under extremely difficult conditions and allowed us to ask Gabe questions regarding supernovae and GRBs.
July 10, 2008
Aimee and Chris further explained Gamma Ray Bursts and Supernovae, while Don explained Radio Telescopes and gave us a preview to the Very Large Array which we would be seeing the next day. We also had the privilege to attend Aimee's lecture at Bradbury Museum later that night.
July 11, 2008
We visited the VLA, which was 4 hours away, so that's pretty much all we did. Nonetheless, we had an interesting and entertaining tour and there was some awesome stuff in the gift shop. There were also some really funny situations, especially to me and Andrew, such as Chris nailing his head on the ceiling of an aluminum building, which made a thunderous "clang" and proved he is in fact a government-controlled robot.
July 12, 2008
Today we began the taxing struggle of washing one's clothes. The task was ultimately completed and we returned to Canyon School to learn features regarding hardware and software of computers from Gabe Rockefeller. Afterwards we went to Don's house to make our own quesadillas, fool around with really old calculators, play frisbee, and watch Contact.
July 13, 2008
After a short trip to the main plaza of Santa Fe, we initiated the daunting quest of buying souvenirs for our friends and family. In the Georgia O'Keefe Museum shop: are these earrings overpriced? could I buy the same pair for cheaper at home and pretend I bought them here? Outside in the plaza: how far can I barter with these vendors? aw man, these are cooler earrings than the ones in the Museum shop for half the price! These were the thoughts constantly swarming my brain. Exhausted by the task, we found repose at Scott's house for dinner. There Daniel beat us all at a game we'd made up. Finally, we decided to risk the weather and attempt to check out Jupiter at Aimee and Chris' house, which was a complete success.
July 14, 2008
I can't really remember what we did on the 14th, but I do remember starting our presentation, which we will be showing on the 18th. Andrew and I will be explaining the math portion of Jupiter's moons' revolutions.
July 15, 2008
We visited Bandolier National Monument, which was once the home of Anasazi Native Americans. We worked on our coding abilities and attempted to model the movement of stars around the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy. Then we stayed up until 3 sketching the moons' movements, since it was one of our clearest nights
July 16, 2008
Today we slept in after staying up all night mapping Jupiter's moons. We began plotting our data on a terminal program, which we will be using in our presentation on Friday. Later we saw a presentation on high-energy astronomical occurrences. At dinner, we were electrocuted, morphed, shot, stabbed, and forced to laugh hysterically by Aimee's son Daniel.
July 17, 2008
Our Presentation is tomorrow! We learned about dark matter from Vick, learned about CCD cameras with Don, and worked on our presentations for the remainder of our time.
July 18, 2008
We wrapped up our presentation, did "dry runs" of it several times, and presented it at Bradbury Museum. We also discussed centrifugal force vs. the force of gravity and the revival of pop music.
July 19, 2008
Today is our last day, just in time, too: everyone's run out of clean clothes. Don showed us basics on amateur radio broadcasting and, after setting up the antenna and equipment, we were able to have conversations with people all over the country! Later we checked out some of the local stores, such as CB Fox, and picked up some groceries to prepare for the greek cooking we'd be attempting later, which ended up a complete success. We spent our last hours together at Aimee and Chris's house where we watched Galaxy Quest and School House Rock.