Rumman Chowdhury

Sunday,July 20:
The beginning of the trip (the end of the wait...) . It was everything I expected and more. After I woke up at a really disgusting time to catch the plane, I was off to Atlanta, where I would meet Leo and Nicole. The fear! The apprehension! After discovering a common idiocy (we hadn't adjusted to the time and we all thought we missed the plane!) we got along really well. At the airport, everything went rather smoothly. We went to lunch at Old Town (real Mexican food, no Taco Bell crap) and I discovered that many of us were Trekkies. After the most interesting Star Trek conversation I'd had in a while, we were off for sightseeing. We saw some really cool things, like a valley created by a volcano. On arriving at the hotel, we unpacked and headed off for some more 'authentic' cuisine, Pizza Hut. Here the similarities got scary. Not only did we defy a law of nature (we all agreed on what we wanted on our pizza! the horror!), we carried on like we had known each other for years! We all got settled in and waited anxiously for the coming weeks. We had an icebreaker scheduled, but we really didn't need one. Do these Earthwatch people know how to pick em or what?!!

Monday, July 21:
We all have to get adjusted to our nocturnal schedules. We spent most of today taking notes on lectures. I finally found out what a parsec was (3.26 light years!). I understand the point of bringing us here (the scientific article didn’t really help). We are here to investigate seeing, which is how good a place is for observing the stars. Fenton Hill is just one of the sites in the Jemez mountains that we will observe. On the lighter side, we learned about the physics of Karate. After dinner we went to the coolest lecture on Cosmology and Primordial Soup. Dr. Rocky Kolb had an interesting way of presenting science in an equally hysterical and educational way. We came back from the lecture and learned how to use the CCD camera, which is a highly technical and very expensive. I learned so much in such a short time. We all took individual pictures for the web page (I look nothing like my picture). We also named our two mascots: Funky Monkey and Albert, Cathy's cat. We all struggled to stay awake to the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, the weather always disagrees with us. It's constantly cloudy and drizzling here. I have yet to see any stars. We now have an official hang out place (da da!!) Furr's! The mad phat supermarket of the planet! (yeah, right) But it' really cool. For a supermarket. We discovered a really cool sci fi oriented store (plug for Two Sisters Space Toy Museum) that has tons of Star Trek and Star Wars stuff.

Tuesday, July 22:
Is it the third day already? My, does time fly when you're having too much fun. Nicole, Lauren and I spent the day singing old songs (Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl...) and making fools out of ourselves. In general, having a great time.
We visited the Bradbury Science Museum, a free museum dedicated to the history of Los Alamos and related stuff. It had an excellent exhibit on the Human Genome Project. I also discovered the personal side of the building of the bomb. I understood the sacrifices the scientists and workers had to make to help their nation. Imagine being cut off from the world for almost two years?! It's amazing.
We had a lecture on lightning safety, then promptly broke all of the rules. We left the cars during a thunderstorm (broken rule #1) and hiked across a ridge (broken rule #2) and then climbed down the edge to the lower ground (#3- just asking for a flash flood!) . We saw some ancient Anasazi cliff dwellings, which made it all worth the while. I fell in love with the beautiful, exotic scenery. It's nothing like New York down here. I think that's the point.
Later we experienced firsthand a pass of the Alexis satellite, which was exciting to me. Although it was a regular pass and nothing extreme happened (Houston, we DON'T have a problem), it was still interesting. That night we also messed around with the CCD telescopes again. There were too many clouds in the sky to accomplish any stargazing, so we attempted to take digital pictures of LED lights at the end of the hallway, which we accomplished after 12 midnight.

Wednesday, July 23

There was a talk given by Stirling Colgate today on Astrophysical Dynamos and the liquid sodium experiment. But, Nicole and I chose to sleep in (it wasn't much of a choice). We got up to go to the Bradbury Science Museum and heard a talk from Garry Franklin. We discussed plutonium and what to do with it. Really fun stuff. He did an awesome presentation on superconductors. We went to see LANSCE, another lab where they are using these funky looking things called Schmoos, which measure cosmic rays and stuff. We made seeing and extinction measurements at ROTSE, which is a portable telescope which requires minimal maintenance. That was the first night we really saw stars. And wow were they cool! I have never seen so many stars at once! This is nothing like the sky in New York. That night I saw Jupiter, Cygnus, and a whole mess of of other things.

Thursday, July 24
Today we got a tour of the Jemez Mountains by Carol Mooney. We learned a lot about the geological history of the mountains. We visited the Milagro project, where they are measuring Cherenkov light in Milagro Pond. That night was the first time we went to Fenton Hill to do measurements. It was a very deep experience. We talked and sang songs (Yellow Submarine). We got back at about 3 am, but it was well worth it. We took CCD pictures of stars again, but this time I knew what I was doing.
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Friday, July 25
Today was a fun day. After a brief talk on time and on CCD's, we talked with Carrie Avery, the representative of the Durfee Foundation, who funded us (YAY DURFEE) That night we went to see "A Winter's Tale" in Santa Fe. It was an unparalleled experience. Shakespeare on a mountaintop with all that beautiful scenery was indescribable. That night, we got back early, but we all decided to do laundry. WE had a laundry party. Who would have thought that laundry would be so much fun. We should have gone to bed early, but we slept at around 2:30. Oh well...

Saturday, July 26
We went on a hike at Tsankawi and we had an excellent guide. I took pictures of everything. There were some awesome petroglyphs left by the Anasazi. That night, we were supposed to go to the Astronomers Night, but we went to see a movie instead because of bad weather. Contact was an ok movie, but it was very appropriate for what we were doing. We had yet another laundry party (Tim had to do laundry) ...I have the feeling that laundry parties are going to become a ritual.

Sunday, July 27

Today, we realized that all the information that we had taken on our trip to Fenton Hill was useless. What a downer. But we saw the silver lining and planned another trip to Fenton Hill. We also plan to go camping at Pajarito Peak on Tuesday night. We went to Wal Mart , which was the highlight of the day. (That's pretty sad) We ate at Red Lobster, an interestingly hysterical meal. If I wasn't part of the larger obnoxious group, I would have hated us. We were making stupid jokes and laughing loudly. Oh well. Wal Mart was fun because we bought everything we thought we would need for the rest of the week. We hope for good weather. Cross your fingers....

Monday, July 28

What lousy weather. After hyping up the Fenton Hill trip, it turned out to be a total wash. Literally. It was raining. We all talked and bonded even better. A woman came up from Earthwatch and she was impressed with how well we all get along. Nicole and I sat on a small tower wondering about everything. We were in a pensive mood. Soon, other people joined us. By the time we had to leave, Nicole, me, Leo, Galen, Michelle, Guthrie, and Tim were on the tower. It was another bonding experience. For the first time, we split up. Lauren,Michelle, Leo, Ed, and I left earlier to do laundry, and the rest stayed in case it cleared up. I went to bed at 2 am, about the time Nicole and co. arrived. Yet another laundry party. I played with Michelle's new rat, Orion, and with Zorro. Another day, more laundry. Although Fenton Hill was difficult, we established the quote of the trip through that experience: "Science is more than science."

Tuesday, July 29

Today was another wash. We were looking forward to camping at Pajarito Peak tonight, but it was canceled because of bad roads. Actually, this morning was funny. Because I took the radio clock thingie up to Fenton Hill yesterday, the time was 2 hours behind. So this morning I kept waking up at what I thought was 5:45 am. Finally I get up at 7:50 because I couldn't sleep anymore. I take a leisurely shower etc. and walk out. I glance at my watch and see that it's 10:30. I thought my watch was malfunctioning, so I go to the lobby to check the time. I see the real time and immediately run screaming upstairs, throw the door open and yell, 'Nicole, it's really 10:30'. So we're both running around frantically and just when we finish packing, Donna calls with the news that we're not going. Why us? ;-) Anyway, we went to Santa Fe today and I wasted a lot of my money shopping. I got some cool turquoise stuff. Yet again, we could take no more measurements. It's storming outside. We're all sitting around doing web stuff. Subway is the focus for us now. Dinner! Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

Wednesday, July 30

Today, since we had nothing else to do, we went down to the Very Large Array (VLA). It was just like Contact, but we were told of many differences. The most funny one was that the VLA is never used for SETI, since the equipment isn't the kind used. VLA was awesome though. Radio astronomy is so interesting. I also witnessed one of the most beautiful double rainbow. We stopped in the middle of the road to take pictures. People were looking at us like we were insane. Maybe we were...

Thursday, July 31

Today we visited Galen's house for a barbecue. It was so fun! We had a fun jam session, and we met Todd's wife and kids [cute kids =) ] The end of the trip looms near! I refuse to admit the inevitable. But at least we went up to Fenton Hill again. We took some images, but they don't seem like all that. Besides, we realized really late that there was about 3 inches of dew on the telescopes. How annoying. We have to present to the Transient Phenomenon Interest Group tomorrow. I hope all goes well!

Friday, August 1

We're finally going up to Pajarito Peak! But let me go in order first. Today, we presented to the interest group. They seemed to like our presentation. Of course, the cuteness factor played a big role ("aww, look at those cute little kids playing with our equipment...") They especially loved our paper plate drawings (thanx Tim!!). But to the more important thing. Pajarito Peak.

Pajarito Peak

I'm placing Pajarito in its own little area, because it is all just one day. It seems to belong that way. Jim, Tim, Lauren and I didn't sleep. Whatever, it was worth it. Most of the night, it was cloudy, so we got minimal data in the area. But no one was too disappointed. How could you be, surrounded by all that natural beauty? After experiencing a beautiful sunset, we all sat around talking. Or actually, we sat on top of the car talking. It was me, Tim, Cathy, Leo, and sometimes Jim, sitting back to back. We talked about everything and then some. It was a soul-searching time, especially in the setting we were in. We were being loud, partially to scare away any bears, and partially because we couldn't help it! After we got too loud and too cold, we all squished in the car. It was fun. Occasionally, Tim would open the door and sing a stupid song to freak out bears. I think we freaked out more than just bears. Later, we all tried to go to bed, but some of us couldn't sleep. Tim and I took out the telescope, and woke up Jim, since he was sleeping in the car. We saw Jupiter (WOW- all 4 moons, bands, AND the spot!) and Saturn in all its glory (rings, etc. etc.). The seeing was pretty good there, since we saw these things while dawn was near. The sky was pretty bright, but it was OK. Lauren, Tim, Cathy, Jim and I saw the sunrise. Another soul- searching moment. This place is like heaven. I took some pictures, but they could never do the place justice. I was sad to leave.

Saturday, August 2

After we got back from Pajarito, we all slept. I mean, knocked out, down for the count, in a comatose state. We were dead to the world until one-ish. We went down to Jemez Pueblo Feast Day and spent oodles of money (bad, bad !) I found a lot of turquoise jewelry for presents. After returning, we planned a schedule: Web pages, party, packing party, laundry party, NO SLEEP. I don't want tomorrow to come! As much as I miss everyone back home, I love it here and I don't want to leave. I walked around Furr's and all of our old hang out places. It was raining when I walked to Canyon School.

Sunday, August 3

This is obviously being written in advance. All together one last time. Promises to write, send pictures, keep in touch. Sad good-byes. I hate good-byes.