Christopher Watson's blog 

July 6, 2008
Today woke up at 2AM to go to the airport in Boston for a 5:20 flight. After checking in my luggage and going through security, I met up with Charlotte. Soon after, we boarded the plane to Chicago - we didn't get to sit together though. We arrived in O'Hare at 7 local time and had to wait until 10:00 for our connection to Albuquerque. Ryan found Charlotte and I but we didn't find Kelsey, Andrew, or Erica until we actually boarded the plane. There were delays and we didn't actually leave until 11:00. We landed Albuquerque around 1:00 and found Scott, Aimee, and Don waiting for us. After retrieving our luggage we met up with Ben and Nica and we all had lunch at a restaurant in the airport. Later we all piled into the van and headed to the Fenton Hill Observatory and checked it out. We got to the hotel around 6:00. I am rooming with Andrew, who seems to be nice (everyone does). We unpacked in our room and decided to go to sleep. Andrew went to bed right away but I couldn't. I was too tired to sleep.

July 7, 2008
MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!

This morning Scott came to our room to wake us up and told that we were going to get our badges (to gain access) in an hour. It turns out he tried to call our room a couple times - I don't think our phone was working. When we got in the van Andrew and I found our that the other guys went to Sonic last night. They tried to call us - I guess we gotta fix that phone. I was disappointed because i had never been to Sonic before - there are like none in Massachusetts :(  Oh well. We went to the badge office and met up with Chris - Aimee' husband. He showed us were to go and we waited in line to get our badges. We played Egyptian Rat Screw in the lobby. Then we went to the Canyon Complex and learned how to use the Stellarium software and the telescopes we are going to use. We went to China Moon for lunch and then to the Bradbury Museum. We saw a movie about the history of Los Alamos - "The Town That Never Was" We then came back to the Canyon Complex so Don could show us another software for looking at the stars. He also showed us a program that predicted when satellites would be in view. Then we went to dinner at the Central Avenue Grill. The others surprised me with a card that they had all signed. We went back to the hotel and played cards in Ben and Ryan's room before going to bed.

June 8, 2008

Today we went on the geology tour with Carol Hogsett. She said she was known as the "gourd lady" because one of her hobbies is gourd art. We played a game in the van to introduce ourselves. Carol said something about each of us and we would say who it was. The tour was really cool. We got to learn all about the history of the area and how the geological features we formed. First we went to the Valle Grade (Great Vally) which is a huge open expanse of grass land inside the Jemez Caldera. Then we went to this place where a pumice rock face had eroded away. Pumice is a type of super light volcanic rock that actually floats. Another type of rock that we saw there was obsidian. Then we all got back in the van and went to a site where there were fossils. The fossils were actually sea creatures that died 300 million years ago - This area used to be sea floor.  I was surprised that I actually found about 20 of my own fossils. Then we went to lunch in Los Ojos (The Sping). Then we went to a hot spring where hot water was comming out of the ground. Carol told us that the water carried calcium carbonate which was deposited on the surface creating the rock features we saw. There was so much build up of the CaCO3 that it used to form a natural dam. There was also a cave that was formed by the flowing spring water. It was hot inside because of the hot spring water heating the cave. Then we took pictures at lizard rock ( it looks like a giant lizard). That was the end of the geology tour. We came back and went to a talk by Didier Saumon on extra-solar Planets. Didier is the leading scientist in this area. We learned all about how planets were discovered and what we know about them so far. The first planet was discovered only 12 years ago so it is pretty exiting. We went to dinner and met Cathy Plesko, a Grad student at the lab. Then later that night we spraypainted White Rock with "Earthwatch 08" and other stuff.

July 9, 2008

Today we got a quick breakfast at a Bagel shop then went to the Canyon school to hear a lecture by Cathy about the solar system. After, we all got in the van to go to a lecture on MonteCarlo. Unfortunatly we couldn't find the building we were supposed to go to, and we were fifteen minutes late by the time we found it. We ended up skipping the lecture because we had already missed the introduction to the topic and it would have been difficult to understand. Instead we met Didier for lunch a little earlier than was planed. After lunch we went back to the Canyon School to hear another lecture from Cathy on her thesis work she was doing at the lab. We also heard a lecture by Chris on the life of stars. Then we went to the Museum to hear a lecture about Gamma-Ray Bursts by Gabe Rockefeller . Then Gabe came with us to get Quiznos and came to the park to listen to some live music. We went up to Fenton Hill at 9:00 to observe though the teloscopes. The sky was clear as we were setting up the teloscopes but as we were trying to align them there was almost complete cloud cover. Best laid plans... There were a few short breaks in the clouds so that Jupiter could show through. We manually aligned to Jupiter and took some sketches of its moons. We dicided it wasn't any use to stay at fenton Hill with such bad weather for observing so we headed back to the hotel. As we were driving, the clouds all went away- Just our luck. We got back to the Hotel at about 2:30. I went right to bed.

July 10, 2008

Today we got up late because we had a long night. We went to El Parasol for brunch. I wanted to eat breakfast but Andrew got the last breakfast burrito, so I got burger. After we went bookstore and i picked up some souvenirs. I got some postcards and a "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" We then went to the canyon complex and heard a talk from both Aimee and Chris. Aimee talk a little about the history of astronomy and Chris talked about equations we are going to use to calculate the mass of Jupiter. At 5 we went to the Museum we saw a demonstration on what a comet is made of. For the demonstration, dry ice, sand and liquid Nitrogen, producing a lot of smoky stuff that sank to the ground. Then we went inside the digital planetarium. The planetarium was cool because it allowed us to look at the sky in a way that isn't possible any other way. After the planetarium, Aimee gave her public lecture on supernovae. Later, Don gave us an introduction to radio astronomy so we will be informed when we visit the VLA tomorrow.

July 11, 2008

Today was Nica's Birthday. In the morning we all signed a card for her before we left for the VLA. VLA stands for "Very Large Array." This is possibly the least creative name imaginable. The VLA is an array of 29 radio telescopes. The ride was long - about 4 hours one way. It wasn't as bad as you'd think though, because we stopped for lunch on the way down and Dinner on the way back. I read the Odyssey and slept most of the time in the van. The long ride was worth it though - the the telescopes were HUGE... well technically "Very Large." We took a tour and Ben made  a lot of "Very Large" jokes. On the ride back we stopped for dinner. We gave Nica her card and the waiters sang for her in spanish. By the time we got back to the hotel it was late and we went to bed.

July 12, 2008

Today we got up early and did our laundry. After, we went to Canyon School and learned Terminal with Gabe. Gabe taught us some of the things we needed to know to run the simulations we were going to do with the orbits. We also took apart a computer and learned a little about the hardware inside. Gabe is a really cool guy. Later that night we went to Don's house. Don has a TON of antique calculators. They were really interesting and cool to use. We had make-your-own-quesidillas and just had a fun time talking with each other. Later, we watched Contact (which was filmed at the VLA). We had Banana Splits and then went back to the hotel.

July 13, 2008

Today we went Santa Fe. We got a quick breakfast/lunch at Sonic - YES my first time!! Then we picked up Kelsey and Nica who had gone to church. We were off to Santa Fe. The first thing we did was go to the Georia O'Keefe Museum. Then Scott showed us the meeting place in the park and allowed us to split up. Ben, Erica, Andrew, Ryan and I went to look at some handmade Native American jewelry. I got a $100 ring stuck on my finger but I got it off thankfully - whew. Then we decided to go to the Cathederal Basilica. On the way I stepped inside a shop that was selling globes made of precious stones. I touched one of them and an alarm started to go off. So we all ran away.  <.<   >.> The Cathedral was beautiful inside. We talked to some nice people in the cathedral who actually thought we were college students. After we went to a fossil shop that had alot of cool stuff. I bought a few suveniers and then we all got in the van and heade dot Scotts house. We stopped at a sculpure garden and then went to Scott's house. I played pool with the guys and Daniel. We had lasagna (which was awesome.) There were so many hummingbirds at Scott's house. (probably because there were so many bird feeders.) We then decided to go up to Fenton Hill but later just went to Chris and Aimee's house to observe because the weather wasn't very good.

July 14, 2008

Today we spent alot of time at Canyon School. We started preparation on our presentation by outlining what we wanted to talk about and assigning jobs to each other. We also learned a little more programming with Gabe. He showed us how to plot orbits in XMGrace. For lunch we had Vietnamese food which was a new experience for me, but was actually very good. For dinner we had pizza at a local shop. We were going to go observing later but didn't because of the lightning.

July 15, 2008

Today we went to Bandolier National Monument. Scott got us donuts to eat before we left. Before we left on the trail, we watched a video in the information center on the area and the Native American people who lived there hundreds of years ago. We saw caves and dwellings that they lived in and even got to go into some of the caves. Then we broke off from the main trail and hiked up to the a big alcove in the cliff. We had to climb ladders to go up 140ft to the alcove. When we were coming down kelsey hurt her ankle. She made it all the way back alright. We came back to Los Alamos and ate luch at subway. We stopped in at the bookstore quikly and I got some suveniers and a yoyo. Then we went to the Canyon School and got used to using XMGrace to plot data. Nica and I worked together to fit an orbit to our data for the galactic center by trying our different velocities and mass. We ended up with a really good fit for our data. Later we went to Bradbury for a lecture on galaxies by Steven Deihl. After the lecture, Steven came to dinner with us and we got to ask him some questions. As we were coming back to the hotel it started raining. It didn't look like we were going to observe tonight. But we held off til 10:00 and the rain started to let up. We decided to go up to Fenton Hill. It was cloudy at first but the sky cleared up quickly and we got alot of good data on Jupiters moons. By the time we got back to the hotel it was 4 Am and I went right to bed.

July 16, 2008

Today we woke up late and had lunch at El Parasol. We went to Canyon School and worked on our presentation by analyzing the data ,however little, that we had. Daniel came from the Durfee Foundation - the people that donated to make the SCAP possible. After working our way through some of the data we called it quits and went to Bradbury to hear a lecture by John Pretz on Cosmic Rays. John talked about the current detector they were using and their plans to build a new detector in Mexico. After the lecture we had dinner with John and Daniel. I didn't talk to john because he was sitting so far away (there were 19 people) but I did talk to Daniel who was sitting next to me. Daniel is a really nice guy. During dinner ben was playing with a light he got at the VLA. And then he yelled out "MY ICE IS CHANGING COLORS!!!" so that the whole restaurant looked over -  haha. After dinner we went Back to the hotel and waited to decide whether we would go to Fenton Hill because of the lightning. We waited until 11 and then decided not to go.

July 17, 2008 

Today we woke up early and had breakfast with Daniel at Viola's. We went up to Canyon School after breakfast to hear Don talk about CCD cameras. After Lunch, Vic talked about Dark Matter. It might sound like science fiction but all the evidence is there to suggest its existence. Vic is actually one of the researchers looking to find a dark matter particle. The rest of the day was dedicated to working on our data for our presentation. Its really coming down to the wire. :O We stayed at Canyon School 11:00 pm putting together our slides and then went back to hotel and went to bed. 

July 18, 2008

Today we frantically worked to finish our presentation. In 12 hours we would be presenting everything we had done to and audience at the Bradbury Museum I was starting to get worried because we didn't have much done. But we pulled it together and did a dry run to see what we had so far. We needed a lot of work. We took a quick break and ate lunch at sonic. To improve our presentation we edited the power point together and gave each other suggestions. When we went for a second dry run it was much smoother. We again gave suggestions to each other and our third time around was great. At 5:00 it was show time. Surprisingly there were not that many people there. But that was oklay with me because the pressure was off. The presentation was great. The few people that did show up really enjoyed it. After our presentation we showed a video that Aimee compiled with picture of our experiences. It got me thinking - I'm really gunna miss these guys ; (

July 19, 2008

Today we went to Fenton Hill to broadcast our radio station with Don. When we got there we set up a large antenna that would send out our signal. I got to try talking over the radio and, although the conditions were bad I actually got someone to respond. Later we went inside and tested out the Geiger counter that registers when it detects radiation. We tested it on a sample Trinitite - a piece of glass formed in the heat of the very fist nuclear explosion. It was slightly radioactive (But 100% safe Don said.) We the took down the radio equipment and headed back to Los Alomos. We then went to Aimee's house to decide what we were going to make for dinner our last night. We chose what recipes we wanted and went to the store to grab what we needed. I helped ben make meat balls. The meal was great. We watched Galaxy Quest on Chris and Aimee's big projection screen. We said goodbye to everyone. It's sad that we have to leave. I had so much fun here and I'm going to miss everyone. I'm so glad I got the chance to come here and I'm exited to go home tomorrow.