Cathy Plesko

"O night thou wast my guide, oh night more loving than the rising sun..."

-St. John of the Cross, 15th century.

Hi there! My name is Cathy Plesko. I was born in northern Indiana, but have lived most of my life in the Pacific North West. I'm excited to be a part of Earthwatch, and I'm having a wonderful time. Astrophysics is a passion of mine, and I hope to go into the field when I graduate. Science is alive here in Los Alamos, more beautiful than the cut-and-dried school version. It is a thrilling atmosphere, and a joy to be a part of.

Our research team is great. Friends from the beginning, we are learning together, teaching each other, discussing a wide variety of topics, and having a good time. We hope to (weather willing) be able to test the astronomical "seeing" at various sites in the area, in preparation for future observatories. The work is complex, the hours are long and late, and I'm about to fall asleep at my computer right now, but I'm loving every minute.

Sunday, July 20

I think I'm going to like it here. The group went to a Mexican restaurant in Old Town Abq. after the airport. Galen, Tim, Rumman and I had an animated discussion on Start Trek. Earthwatch seems to have failed on their mission to send completely different people to a research site. We all get along famously, and seem to have more in common than we do differences. We laughed about it all day- especially when we all decided on the same type of pizza for dinner. Also assorted other group discussions about physics, life, etc. At the hotel we had the first of a series of room parties. We sat around and discussed black holes, the effects of gravity on massless particles, capitalism and socialism, economics, and life in general. It's nice to be around people who can carry on an intelligent conversation.

Monday, July 21

Explored the town during the morning, especially the library. GREAT phys/astronomy section. Galen, Michelle, Heather, and Guthrie gave the first of a series of mini astronomy courses to bring us up to speed on what we needed to know for our research. In the evening we attended the annual Oppenheimer lecture. All of us enjoyed Rocky Kolb's speech. Afterward, we learned how to use a CCD camera and software.

Tuesday, July 22

Wrote in my journal this morning, and then discussed calculus with Jim. In the afternoon we went to the Bradbury Science Museum. Had a lesson in lightning safety (which we were to violate consistently throughout the expedition). After this we went on a nature safety walk on one of the nearby mesas. We saw some Anasazi cliff dwellings, petted a horny toad, and learned about the plants of the area. After dinner we went to LANL to watch a pass of the ALEXIS satellite, which does astronomy in the ultraviolet and x-ray bands. Next we worked on using a telescope and CCD camera to resolve LED lights at the end of a hall. We worked until midnight, and finally resolved them. Don was teaching us how to do this. I've never seen someone so passionate about his job. I hope I'm that lucky when I grow up.

Wednesday, July 23

Attended a presentation by Sterling Colgate on his latest liquid sodium experiment. We had lunch with Galen at the LANL cafeteria, an adventure in itself, and then went back to the science museum to hear lectures on LANL's history, and current work. Next we toured the ROTSE I site, near the LANSCE accelerator. It started to rain in the middle of the tour, so we canceled our observing plans and did some work on our web pages. It cleared up around 10:pm, so we loaded the telescopes and everything else into the vans and drove back out to the site and learned how to use the telescope and camera, and the positions of the constellations.

Thursday, July 24

Took a geological tour of the Jemez mountains, Valle Grande, and Soda Dam. Toured the Milagro project's Milagrito cosmic ray detector. Went to the old Hot Dry Rock power site (future home of the Fenton Hill Observatory) and took seeing measurements until moonrise. We also discussed philosophy as we worked, the atmosphere lent itself to the topic. At first we talked about general things, current events, pets, hobbies, books. As the darkness deepened, we began to discuss philosophy and religion, topics that would come up several times during the next week. We became a much closer group as we learned about each other, and about our job. We shared frustrations (on the LDRD), small triumphs, nebulas (on the 7" meade), and Beatles songs.

Friday, July 25

Had some more astronomy mini-lectures in the afternoon. Went to "Shakespeare in Santa Fe" with Galen, and saw "A Winter's Tale" as I had never seen Shakespeare before- under the stars. It was beautiful. As usual, a storm was rolling in when we got there, and some glowering clouds spat at us, daring us to proceed with the show, but they blew away by the time it started. The rest of us ate dinner while Galen and the musicians set up. Several wandering minstrels walked by with whistles and drums. After a while, one of them set up a hammered dulcimer. I leaned against a nearby lamp post to watch. He looked up after a while, and asked me if I wanted to try it. I smiled, I knew the drill. I had played the dulcimer for several years, but hadn't been able to find the time to keep it up. I took the proffered mallets, picked at it a bit to get my bearings, and then launched into "The Irish Washer Woman", the one piece remaining to me in my rusted memory. It felt good to play again. I think I'd forgotten to tell him that I'd taken lessons, because as I finished playing, I became conscious of people staring at me. My playing hadn't been all that great, but I had enjoyed myself, and that's all that mattered. "Never quit an instrument." Galen told me later. I don't think I could.

Saturday, July 26

Toured Tsankawi pueblo ruins during the afternoon. Learned about their culture and habits from a local amateur archaeologist. Saw many rock carvings, including Kokopeli. I was surprised how important the solar calendars were to the Anasazi. Most of the carvings we saw were solar markers of some sort. They even built calendars into their dwellings and kevas. At home we have a natural solar calendar. From where my house sits, the sun appears to set directly on the tip of a local island on summer solstice. I wondered if the Anasazi used some of the many local mountains in their measurements. Another storm rolled in that evening, canceling our plans to attend the Pajarito amateur astronomers' Dark Night. We went out for Chinese food and saw the movie Contact instead. Good movie, but I liked the book much better.

Sunday, July 27

Went to church in the morning. Tried to retrieve the data from our previous night's observations that afternoon, but had some computer problems. Observation rained out again that night, so we went to Santa Fe for dinner, and to get supplies for camping out at Pajarito peak, one of our prospective sites. Not the most productive day, but we had a wonderful time laughing, joking and making bad puns at dinner. We seem to be our own best entertainment.

Monday, July 28

Rained all day today. Pajarito was definitely out of the question, the narrow dirt roads would be treacherous. We went to Fenton Hill in spite of the rain. It stopped raining while we set up, and we had high hopes of a clearing. We did learn that fog collects in the Valle Grande caldara just below Fenton Hill, and sends it up the slope. We spent about an hour waiting it out. Around 1:am, the clouds broke. We scrambled to finish setting up the scopes, and setting up the CCD camera. Just as we finished setting up, the clearing closed again. We tore down about 2:am. Perhaps radio astronomy or gamma ray work would be a better career alternative...

Tuesday, July 29

Toured Santa Fe today. We attended a planetarium show at the community college, called "Daughter of the Stars". It discussed Native American legends about the constellations.We had lunch downtown at a small diner. I tried the hot chili, which for a veteran chili wuss was quite an accomplishment. Afterward we toured the Georgia O'Keefe museum and other landmarks. I enjoy O'Keefe's flower paintings, but I have trouble understanding many of her abstracts. I especially liked "Ladder to the Moon", which I thought was vaguely appropriate to the expedition. We went to the Loretto chapel, famous for its beautiful wood staircase, which was built under miraculous circumstances. I bought a postcard of it for a friend I'd promised to write to. She was ill with cancer, I'd have to call home to find out how she was. We explored the town until evening, and then drove back to Los Alamos. Another thunderstorm had canceled observation for the night. I called home as we worked on our web journals at Canyon School, my friend had passed away a few days earlier.

Wednesday, July 30

It was raining as we got up this morning, observation at Pajarito and elsewhere was canceled again. Just as I was about to get depressed, Donna announced that Galen had decided to take us to see the VLA (Very Large Array of radio telescopes) in Socorro. The VLA was several hours south of Los Alamos. On the way Jim gave me another calculus lesson, bringing me up to speed on derivatives. The site was amazing. Out in a wild, flat valley. Surrounded only by mountains, sagebrush, and cows. It was especially exciting to see it because one of my favorite books, Contact, (yes, the book is better) supposedly took place largely at the VLA. Although the instrument isn't used for SETI work in real life, as it was in the book, it is used to map many amazing parts of our universe, and some of the data is available to the public through their web site (another good rainy day project for this winter). The computer equipment at the VLA is remarkably old. It was designed and built before I was born. It is still functional, but it will be nice for them to get fiber optics and more powerful computers when they upgrade in a few years. I was amazed that the dishes, big as they are, are movable. The transport systems take two sets of railroad tracks to support the weight. It reminded me of the old myth about a turtle carrying the earth on it's back. We were all delighted to hear that the VLA isn't affected by rain. Tim, Nicole, and I decided that we would all collaborate to do research here one day. The rain was beginning again as we left. As we drove by one of the dishes, a rainbow suddenly appeared, and seemed to be springing out of it. It was a striking combination of the visual and radio spectrum. I hope my pictures turns out. After dinner at a small but charismatic restaurant in Socorro, built in 1920, we drove home. On the way Michelle gave us some advice on getting into and surviving college and grad school. Watched a lightning storm from the hotel window, at least we have a beautiful adversary in the weather.

Thursday, July 31

We met at Canyon school today to update our web journals and compile what little data we had into a presentation that we were to give to Galen's coworkers the next day. We were all very frustrated. The weather and computers had not been kind to us. You know you're in a bad situation when the computer tells you to panic. I felt that I had learned and grown from the experiences I'd had here, but I had doubts as to the scientific value of my work. Todd, the other scientist who worked with us, gave us a pep talk. He made us think back over the conditions we had observed at the sites. How many cloud bands had we seen on Jupiter? How many moons? What had the weather been like at the site? Could we see any city lights, or the glow from a city on the horizon? We realized that we had some data, after all. (Thanks, Todd).

After a picnic lunch on the leftovers from our unsuccessful attempt at an expedition to Pajarito peak, Todd told us about his work on the Superkamiokande, a converted zinc mine, now neutrino detector, in Japan. The detector is 40 meters tall, and equally as wide, but because neutrinos don't interact much, they see only 15 of them per day. I suddenly didn't feel so bad about our own lack of data.

At 5:pm, we had a barbecue and jam session at Galen's house. It was the first home cooked meal we'd had in nearly two weeks, and we all enjoyed it. I was surprised how much the Gislers' home resembled my parents' house. Great minds think alike, I suppose. After dinner, everyone who could play took up an instrument and joined in an impromptu jam session. I played the hammered dulcimer and the penny whistle. We played until sunset, when we noticed that by some good fortune, the clouds had parted. We hurriedly loaded up the equipment and drove out to Fenton Hill. Our plan worked like clockwork. Tim, Nicole, and I took visual data on a 10" maksutov, which we recorded on "astronomical plates", paper plates Tim converted for the purpose. The others worked on a 7" maksutov with a CCD camera. We worked until about 4: am, when we realized that Jupiter didn't look as clear as it had earlier in the evening. We checked our mirrors, and found that they were completely fogged up. We quickly tore down and took them inside, hoping that the condensation would evaporate, and not damage the telescopes. We started home at dawn. I remember groggily promising Galen that I'd stay awake on the way home and sing Beatles songs with him and Nicole. I fell asleep in the middle of "Yesterday", and woke up to "Yellow Submarine" around 6:am, as we drove into Los Alamos.

The days seem to melt into each other. I never realized how much I relied on night as a divider of my experiences, but when we started working through the night, it became a normal part of my "day" (as strange as that sounds), and the calendar dates became rather irrelevant. To me, Thursday from about 9:am to dusk was a day, dusk to 6:am Friday was a day, 9:am Friday until dusk was a day, dusk until dawn Saturday was a day, and dawn Saturday until about 1:am Sunday was a day. I'll try to stick to calendar dates, but it isn't as accurate at portraying how I felt time pass.

Saturday, August 1

We met at Canyon School around 11:am to prepare our presentation for Galen's colleagues. We were all a bit nervous. We had little data, but we wanted to show the group that Earthwatch was a valuable program (which it had been, immensely valuable, at least to us). I was to present the data we had gathered on our first three observing runs. At the meeting in a LANL board room, Rumman and Nicole introduced us and explained what Earthwatch was, and what we'd hoped to do on the expedition. Then I presented the first three observing runs (see notes below). Next, Nicole and Tim spoke on the work we'd done the night before in visual observation on the 10'' maksutov. The group seemed excited for us, and got a good laugh from Tim's "astronomical plates." Ed, our CCD wizard, showed them the images the team on the 7" maksutov had taken.

My part of the presentation before the Transient Astrophysics group:

Our first three observing runs.

A. Wednesday, July 23: ROTSE 1 site:

Weather: rained in the afternoon and early evening, cleared by 10:pm.

Telescope: 7" Meade maksutov, photometrics CCD camera.

Data: No data taken.

Notes: Moonrise was early. We used this night to familiarize ourselves with the telescope, camera, and constellations.

B. Thursday, July 24: Fenton Hill

Weather: clear, occasional clouds

I. LDRD telescope (30 cm), Axiom camera.

Data: no data taken.

Notes: Took most of the night learning how to focus the telescope. It doesn't have tracking capabilities, so we learned how to resolve two clear star trails with a known separation on a long time exposure.

II. 7" Meade maksutov, SenSys camera.

Data: 6 semi-focused images. Estimated possible resolution on Jupiter was one arc second, plus or minus .5.

Notes: The seeing was probably better. We were still learning how to use the camera and telescope.

C. Monday, July 28 Fenton Hill.

Rained out. We discovered that fog collects in Fenton Valley and then floats up over the Fenton Hill Site. This is a problem for humid nights, and observing nights after a rainy day.

Conclusions: Know thy 'scope, and don't expect good images during monsoon season.

*******************

After our presentation, a colleague of Galen's gave a fascinating talk on the nonexistence of the scientific method, and other science myths taught in school. After the lecture, we piled in the Pathfinders and finally headed out to Pajarito peak. After lunch in the car, I slept until we stopped in Santa Fe to pick up the camping gear. Slept again for an hour on the way to San Ysidro, where the vehicles were meeting, after picking up the camping supplies and telescopes. The ride up the mountain was beautiful. The pot hole filled dirt road wasn't good, but wasn't as bad as we'd heard either. The views off the mountain northeast to Santa Fe, and southwest out on to the Zia pueblo. The Sunset over the pueblo was one of the most spectacular I'd ever seen. After exploring the mountaintop a bit, and enjoying the sunset, we set up our tents in the lower, slightly sheltered, middle of the peak. Pounding the tent stakes was a chore in the dry rocky soil. Either the stake would be stopped by a stone, or would simply pull out of the dirt. We ended up just weighing the tent edges down enough to keep them upright and in place. We ate dinner in the dark. A thunderstorm was blocking off a large part of the sky. A few of us went up a slightly higher part of the peak to get a better view. The lights of Santa Fe and San Ysidro spread out before us like diamonds. It was pretty, but the light pollution was not good for astronomy. The storm seemed to be moving towards us, and a stiff wind blew at us from that direction as soon as we were out of the sheltered lower area. That didn't bode well. We walked back to the campsite, packed up the food, and set up the telescope to get some data before the rains came. Ed tried to get some visual data, but it wasn't working well. With only one telescope to fourteen people, crowding became a problem. Several of us decided to climb on top of the nearest pathfinder to stay out of the way, and still see what was going on. Eventually we gave up on the telescope. We had a large, although benign cloud between us and Jupiter, our main focusing object. The night wore on. As we got tired, we decided to sit back to back on top of the computer to keep ourselves upright and somewhat awake in case the sky cleared. I sat facing out over Santa Fe, and into the wind, idly watching the thunderstorm, as we talked about anything and everything that came to mind. I felt like I was flying over the earth, with the wind running through my hair, the storm at eye level in the distance, and the city spread out below me.

At 3:am, Ed felt rain, so we quickly put the telescope away, and then resumed our posts on the top of the pathfinder. Soon we all got cold, and piled inside the vehicle. It was a tight squeeze with six of us and a telescope. Occasionally we would, sing, shout, or blast the radio to scare off any local marauding animals. We gave up for the night at around 3:30. I crawled into the tent, and slept.

Saturday, August 2

I woke up around 6:am, to find Donna and Michelle breaking camp. They told me, to my dismay, that the sky had cleared shortly after I had fallen asleep, and that they, Tim, Nicole, Jim, Rumman, Guthrie, and Lauren had experienced some of the best seeing of the week. They had seen separation between the rings of Saturn, and even cloud patterns. They had seen five cloud bands and the red spot on Jupiter, with the Gallilean moons in perfect alignment to one side. All this, and I hadn't looked throughout the telescope the entire night. Oh well. At least someone had. I ran up one of the taller peaks to watch the sunrise with the others. The pastels of the desert looked cleanly washed after the night's showers. The sun exploded in silence over the peak, a hummingbird bugled and zipped past us to drink from the wildflowers that grew in profusion on the peak. I envy the person who eventually works there. The ride down was just as exciting as the way up, and the morning view was wonderful, as the sun rose over the mountain and chased away the shadows on the east side. The mesas flashed by as we drove down the highway back to Los Alamos. Red, white, and tan striped, dotted with juniper, pinion pine, cactus, wild flowers, and scrub grass. I curled up in my seat, with the morning sun streaming over me, and dozed quietly.

In the afternoon we went to a Jemez Pueblo feast day. The celebration was beautiful, and the community seemed to be a closely knit and devout people, but I never managed to find out what the occasion for the feast was. I love the scenery here. We saw some of the best driving home from the pueblo.

Sunday, August 3

Departed. Vowed to return...