Web Journal:
Truth is not knowledge. "Knowledge" is deceiving.
Who is Elyne Kahn? Sometimes I don't think that I can answer that question much better than the next guy, despite the fact that I am Elyne Kahn. As far as trivial information goes, I can tell you that I live in Portland, Maine, which makes me the farthest from home of the eight students on this expedition. I was born, however, in Northern California, where I spent the first five years of my life. I like to think that most of the stimulus that shaped me as an individual occured there.
Meditations: All research and, ultimately, discovery inherently begin with a question. At this stage of the expedition, the question on my mind is "What is the question?" What is to be accomplished and, more importantly, what knowledge is to be obtained as a result of the activities that are to be conducted within this two week period? As far as I am concerned at this point, the expedition is entirely self-serving. I am in it for my own benefit. The benefit should ideally be manifested in both knowledge and experience in the field of astrophysics, as well as knowledge and experience regarding the opportunity to work with a diversity of intelligent people who, for the most part, are exploring the field with no real previous knowledge. In other words, we're all in the same proverbial boat. One of the more prominent lessons that I have learned over the course of this expedition is one that I have learned dozens of times before: Don't ever judge anyone by first impressions, especially if those first impressions come in the forms of photographs.
How does transient phenomena in astrophysics tie into scientific questions that are a bit more terrestrial, for instance?
(Any given entry will often carry several hours into the morning of the following day because nights are often used to their maximum potential for observing the night sky. The period of observation is not considered to be over until a) dawn, or b) someone passes out from exhaustion.)
Tuesday, 16 June 1998:
The day began at home, followed quickly by the Portland International Jetport. Anticipation of the trip did not run as high as might have been expected. I attribute this to the fact that I had been concentrating mostly on final exams and various social dilemmas on the days prior to the departure to Los Alamos. There were flight delays in both Portland and Cincinnati. I was the last one to arrive in Albuquerque. When I got off the plane it was immediately apparent who were members of the EarthWatch team. The signs would not have been necessary. Everyone struck me as being quite friendly from the beginning. We proceeded directly to dinner, where I was able to get to know my fellow expeditionites better as individuals. The first impressions were pleasant, for the most part.
After dinner we drove from Albuquerque to Los Alamos. The drive was enhanced by beautiful southwestern scenery. Galen was full of information regarding the more interesting of the sites. This time was utilized to further our knowledge of the various things covered in the briefing packet.
Upon our arrival in Los Alamos, we decided upon our roommates (mine is David Hamner from Georgia) and settled ourselves into the hotel rooms at Hilltop House. We then went to the Canyon School (where, as it turns out we were to spend a great deal of our time). While there we furthered our discussions to clarify what was presented to us in the briefing. We discussed in depth the concept of micro-lensing events. I found it to be quite interesting. The basic idea behind it is that when one massive object passes between an object that is a source of light and the observer of the light, the observer will be able to see the source of light as a result of the light curving around the object doing the blocking. This is caused by the effect of the gravity of the object on the photons of the light. (See figure below.) If the observer happens to be at the point where the rays of light cross over eachother (the focus) the light will appear as one point, which is brighter than the light would be if there was no micro-lensing effect. Otherwise the light will appear as a hollow circle, light a donut, or perhaps a bagel, or even a flotation device.
Note: Objects not drawn to scale. (Especially the eye.)
Another concept that we discussed that I found particularly interesting was how and why all the major objects within our solar system (planets, asteroids, etc.) came to revolve on the same plane (except for Pluto). The solar system began as a massive revolving ball of matter. The gravity of the ball caused the matter to be attracted to the center. The angular momentum, however, caused the matter to want to expand outward. The combination of these two forces caused the matter to flatten into what was essentially a giant pancake. The matter continued to revolve around the center and eventually formed numerous objects within the system, all revolving in the same direction on essentially the same plane.
At about 1:00 am we returned to become aquainted with our hotel rooms and roommates. Mine were #310 and David Hamner, respectively. As it turns out, this hour of nocturnal retirement was quite early in comparison with our nights of observation.
Wednesday,17 June 1998:
I woke up with plenty of well-needed sleep behind me. We met at Canyon School in the early afternoon and proceeded to the Bradbury Science Museum where we met Garry. Garry was a bald-headed, big-bearded, Harley riding science buff. He gave us an in depth tour of the museum, covering topics ranging from the history of the Los Alamos National Laboratory to seismographs. The most prominent lasting memory of Garry is sure to be his preserved human brain that he used to supplement his human brain lecture. The lecture itself was fascinating, as was the aroma of the visual aide. It was also intersesting to see replicas of the shells of Little Boy and Fat Man, the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II. They both utilized two very different trigger mechanisms, both of which were immensely destructive. We also learned about the radioactivity level in various materials including Fiesta Ware.
We returned to the museum a little later in order to attend the first night of several lectures as part of Astronomy Days. We were able to get an introduction to the Fenton Hill observing sight from Galen and Milagro, a massive detector of Gamma Rays on Fenton Hill, in a lecture given by Chad Young. We were also given the opportunity to introduce ourselves and tell the audience what we hope to get from this experience. I said something about getting my feet wet and being given the opportunity to experience new things.
The remainder of the evening was spent familiarizing ourselves with CCD cameras, with the aid of Don Casperson. We retired at approximately 1:00 am again, after working tirelessly on perfecting one image. In order to capture the image in full color it was necessary to store the images of photos taken with three different lenses which were then essentially superimposed upon each other digitally. When an image was completed, however, the features of the CCD program were quite useful.
Unfortunately, for a good part of the day my mind was concerned with certain conundrums that I left behind at home.
Thursday, 18 June 1998:
Today was long, to say the least. We met once again at Canyon School in the early afternoon and began the day with two lectures given by Ed Fenimore. The first was quite memorable, as well as profound. Ed completely tore apart traditional methods of scientific study. He likened the field of science to a rat maze in which there are many interconnections and blind alleys, as well as gaps that represent assumptions made by other scientists. One of the keys to Enlightenment is to have a unique combination of scientific skills so that one can understand his bearings within the rat maze. One of the interesting aspects of science that was discussed was the fact that there is essentially an unlimited amount of knowledge and, hence, an unlimited amount of discoveries. The number of scientific discoveries have risen exponentially over the years. Ed also presented us with the concept that scientific truths become truth by passing the knowledge on to younger generations, rather than attempting to convince the adversaries of the truth of the fallacies in their beliefs.
Ed then talked to us about Gamma Ray Bursts. He is one of the world's top experts on the subject, which was cool. What I thought was really neat was the fact that one gamma ray burst completely overrides all other sources of gamma rays and floods the entire Universe.
After Ed's talk we went to the LANL Auditorium and heard Henry Ferguson speak on the Hubble Deep Field. Truthfully, I regret not taking the opportunity to catch up on my sleep. I think that all I really got out of the time we spent in the lecture hall was a cool sketch of a spiral.
We then went to the Fenton Hill observing sight for the first time. We were given a tour of Milagro. It was large. Not very large, however. I think we were all disappointed that it was not inflated. Had it been we probably would have been able to walk on top of the twenty foot bubble that inflates above it so that maintenance work and stuff can be done underneath.
The most exciting part of the day came after we familiarized ourselves with the Fenton Hill sight. We spent the night observing the night sky, illuminated in a glorious display of pinpoints of light, the likes of which I have never before seen. It was orgasmic. Well, almost.
Unfortunately for some, the telescope housed in the ten-foot dome was not operational. Beth, David and I spent the night in the Astro Haven clamshell, observing with a Meade 7-inch telescope, with others coming in and out periodically. After aligning it with a couple stars we were able to simply punch in the name or coordinates of any given celestial phenomenon and the Meade would direct us to it automatically. For the most part we spent the night studying double stars and then Messier objects, which include nebulae, galaxies, star clusters and such. The only impediment to our viewing ability was some slight dust in the sky as a result of forest fires earlier that day. It got cool as the we trekked on into the night and it was necessary to utilize multiple layers of clothing in order to prevent discomfort or death (pick one). The very early morning atmosphere somehow provided an opportunity for me to open up somewhat to the group. When someone commented on the fact that she had never heard me talk so much, my only explanation was, "I'm tired and I'm drunk." We returned to the hotel a little while after dawn.
Friday, 19 June 1998:
We met once again at Canyon School after getting not nearly enough sleep. Jim Wren talked to us about the ROTSE project. ROTSE I is a really cool four camera observing tool capable of documenting the entire night sky several times each night. ROTSE II is under construction. Then Jeff Bloch talked to us about the Interstellar Medium. Part of his talk involved supernovae and the formation of life and stars, which was pretty intersesting. One thing that he told us was that outside of our own atmosphere, in outer- space, there is ~1 hydrogen atom per cubic centimeter. However, in most substances on Earth there are ~10^23 atoms per cubic centimeter. Fascinating.
To tell you the truth, I have no idea what we did until we arrived at the ROTSE I sight, which seems like it should have been much later. Well, anyway, we began our observations at ROTSE at about 10:20 (astronomical twilight). We had to make sure that the sun was 18 degrees below the horizon before we could begin observing. ROTSE has a nifty program for displaying the status of the sun and the moon. Jim walked us through the working of the CCD camera imaging. We located and observed M95 and M96, two galaxies. There was a brightness in the center of the image due to lensing which was fixed by dividing out the flat field. I admit I'm not exactly sure what that means, but it worked. To the lower right of M96 we discovered a bright pixel. We could not tell whether it was simply a hot pixel or an actual celestial object. (I believe the final consensus was that it was simply a hot pixel.)
ROTSE I was not really what I had imagined it would be. It is basically an old military communications center box that is painted white with four cameras mounted on the top beneath a clamshell. The clamshell opens automatically at night when it is supposed to begin observations. It is really a very cool little tool.
Saturday, 20 June 1998:
Today we went on a hike through ancient Tsankawi Indian territory. Diane Roussel-Dupre was our knowledgeable tour guide. She showed us a spot where Tsankawi ruins were located. We were able to find several pieces of broken pottery and such, some of which retained interesting patterns from long ago. We also were able to see some caves and drawings on rock faces, which were both used mostly for religious purposes. It was interesting to learn how imortant and all consuming religion was to the Tsankawi. The drawings consisted mostly of crude, unique figures in a variety of positions. I'm not really sure of the significance of the figures, but they were quite cool.
When we had had enough of the excrutiating heat, we retired to the public swimming pool in White Rock, after a quick stop at Galen's house. The house was quite cool and don't recall ever seeing so many instruments in one household. Just one more reason to admire our guru, I suppose. Anyway, the pool was quite refreshing.
After that we returned to Canyon School to type these journals, sunburns and all. (I don't expect anyone's really reading this journal at this point. You're a loser if you are, loser.)
Today we went to the Gisler's home to celebrate Galen's Birthday. Everything was very cool. We feasted and played badminton. We also had a jam session with all of Galen's exotic instruments, which nobody really knew how to play. We basically produced nothing more than a cacophony, but it's all right because a good time was had by all. I think we stayed at the house a little longer than would have been ideal as far as Galen was concerned. His kids had invited us to stay and watch "Gattaca", which was an adequate flick. Anyway, we returned to the hotel perhaps around eleven or so and maybe went to bed. I don't really recall.
Nearly the entire day (and night) was spent at Fenton Hill, which is a very cool thing. A little while after we got there and started to get things set up for that night, John and Meg Menke arrived. They are the ones who designed and built the Astro Dome, which no one could seem to get to work correctly. A sense of hope set in, however, when the Menkes arrived to try and help us out. The Menkes were really interesting people from somewhere around.Washington DC They told us over dinner all about their individual lives and how they got started building Astro Domes. I felt it was a valuable look into the world of small businesses and how they get started. To everyone's dismay, the Dome still didn't work properly after the Menkes had gone. We were still able to get in some valuable observations, however. The seeing was exceptional, due partially to the fact that there had been no forest fires earlier in the day. David, Beth and I spent the night observing from the Astro Haven again. We went over our list of double stars for the second time and once again took down data while trying to eyeball the distance between the stars. Later in the evening, we helped Don set up a radio antenna and some equipment in an attempt to read some radio waves coming from Jupiter as the result of the interaction between its magnetic field and the moon Io. Unfortunately, Io was not in the right position, so we were unable to pick up any significant transmissions. For some reason, I felt especially tired tonight. Perhaps I just didn't get enough caffeine. I dozed off a couple times. Luckily we retired somewhat early because we had to attend a lecture at 13:00 on the 23rd.
As promised, we attended a lecture at 13:00 at the Lab Main Auditorium, following lunch. It was probably the best lecture so far. Lawrence Krauss was speaking on the physics of Star Trek. The room was packed. As well it should have been considering Krauss' popularity, especially with Star Trek and physics buffs, of which there are plenty in Los Alamos. Krauss would show clips from different Star Trek episodes and series and then tell the audience why it would be impossible to perform such tasks as those performed in the clips. He had an interesting theory about the flaws, as well as the valid points, concerning wormholes. He also said that if we were to create a transporter of some sort that stored all the information of the human body in hard drives, we would need so many hard drives that they could be stacked one third of the distance to the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Damn! After the lecture we all had to take a GET (Government Employee Training) Test. This is a test that everybody who works at the lab has to take. The thing was, we had already been there a week before we had a chance to take the damn thing. That means that if any of us had failed Galen would have been in hot water. We had all received GET books, which nobody had really looked over to any great extent. We were allowed to use the books while we were taking the test, however, so none of us were really worried. Except, of course, Galen. It was cool, though. Everyone past with points to spare. I only got one wrong out of 40-something questions. It was mostly common sense stuff about safety regulations and crap like that. So, that was that. In the evening we went back to the Bradbury Science Museum again to hear Jack Hills' lecture on killer asteroids and such. It was really cool to learn about the mass destruction that your common everyday space debris can cause. We're talkin' 1500 ft tidal waves and all that jazz. Jack had a theory that the reason non-swimming mammals don't live near the ocean is that every few million years they're destroyed by waves from asteroids. I thought that was something of a valid explanation. Other people didn't seem to agree, though. Anyway, it was a pretty decent lecture.
This was an interesting day. Most of our waking hours were spent driving. We drove for a total of eight hours to and from the VLA (Very Large Array). It was worth it, though. The thing is massive. Impressive, really. We took a tour of the control rooms and everything and we got to go inside one of the dishes that in for repairs. It was inside this massive barn. The dish itself was quite big, I have to say. I thought it was cool that there were all sorts of cows grazing in the same fields that the dishes were located. Apparently the farmers had to be given short courses in radio astronomy so they could be assured that their cows were going to be safe from deadly rays or something. The trip presented plenty of good photo opportunities. In the visitor center there were pictures on display of images taken of the night sky with an optical wave length telescope and Images of the same area taken with a radio wave length telescope. The difference between the two was fascinating. There are massive areas of high intensity radio waves about the galactic plane that aren't even visible as anything significant in the other pictures. The drive to the VLA gave us a chance to see what I assume is what New Mexico really is like. For hours on end we would drive on completely straight roads across flat desert with massive rock formations in the distance. It was really very cool stuff. We ate at some restaurant where I don't recall seeing anything on the menu that didn't contain beef. I don't think we did anything after we got back, but I don't remember. I probably just went to bed.
This really wasn't one of our run of the run-of-the-mill days of our trip (if there is such a thing). We were taken on a geology tour of the Jemez Mountains by Carol Hogsett. She told us all about the history of the land around Los Alamos. We went to a massive valley owned by a Texas cattle ranching family. We had driven by a few times and stopped to look at the cows and elk grazing together. Carol told us that the seemingly massive valley is a small portion of a huge crater that was formed as the result of a colossal volcanic explosion a few million years ago. Carol also took us to a place right on the side of the road where one can see layers of different types of soil on a ridge. Most of it was pumice that had also been deposited by volcanic activity. We even got to take some of it home! Cool! That means we can make our very own stone-washed jeans and Lava soap. Sweet! We stopped for a little while at a tourist center type place, with posters and T-shirts and such. Dana and I sat outside under a poplar tree while everyone else was inside. She told me that she had been trying to figure out whether I was withdrawn or simply low- key. (I had been pretty reclusive for most of the trip.) I thought it was really cool that she asked me that. I think I found it somewhat flattering that she would have been wondering such a thing. She's the kind of person that I would really like to gain the respect of. Anyway, after the stop we went to a place on the side of a mountain where there are rock faces from which one can pick out fossils of little funky organisms from when the whole area was under water, which was plenty long time ago. That evening we went once again to the Bradbury Science Museum to hear a lecture about the Northern Lights, given by Geoff Reeves, who was a really cool guy and an excellent public speaker, I thought. He did a good job of engaging the audience. I really learned a heck of a lot about the Northern Lights. I had no idea that they are so spectacular, let alone how they are created. Geoff also talked about the significance of the Aurora Borealis to ancient cultures. Good stuff.
I'm pretty sure this was the day that Don talked to us about radio astronomy, which is a fascinating subject. I find it so interesting that there are so many realms of the universe beyond what is immediately apparent. Diane Evans also talked about Synchrotron Radiation. I'm not sure, but I think everyone else got as little out of this talk as I did. Diane threw a whole bunch of equations at us without giving sufficient explanations. I really wish the subject had been presented in a more understandable manner. It is probably something that we all would have enjoyed learning about, had we been given a realistic chance. There were also two people at the Canyon School who were interviewing each one of us for some sort of motivational video. They asked us questions about our role models and friends and things we enjoyed...stuff like that. I just went with the flow. We went to Fenton Hill in the evening. I didn't really take down any data for this observing session. I think I kind of went with a medley of observing tools. We began to get into the use of the CCD cameras as a medium for star gazing. They are another thing that are able to really put a new twist on astronomy. When used correctly observations can become very precise. We drove home a little while after dawn, which is when the elk come out to feed. We must have seen a few hundred of them on our drive. One of them we almost hit when we came around a corner, and another was standing on the side of the road just a few feet from the van. When we stopped it hopped over a fence and took off. They're magnificent creatures.
We had planned to go to Bandelier National Monument today, but we all thought the better of it and decided to sleep in instead. We had driven past it enough times anyway. Whatever. So we all slept for a while and then lazily made our way back to Fenton Hill eventually that evening. I stayed up looking at the moon and then double stars with the CCD camera of Don's hooked up to a Meade telescope and Don's CCD computer program. For the most part it was Dana, Megan and me using the camera. We checked out some Messier objects and fooled around with exposure times. It was good stuff. We still weren't able to get any radio transmission from Jupiter. We called it quits fairly early (2:00 AM) and headed back to the hotel for some fair sleep before our big day on the town.
This was a pretty cool day. Definitely worth the trip to Santa Fe. It gave all of us a chance to experience some of the culture and open up our minds a little bit before we had to leave New Mexico. Probably the best thing we did was go to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. I didn't like her work nearly as much until I actually got to see it in person. It really makes a hell of a difference. She had some really inspiring stuff. We were also given the chance to view, up close, the Santa Fe Gay Pride parade. I guess that was just another one of our New Mexican cultural experiences. The drag queens were especially ostentatious. In the evening we went to a production of Hamlet given by an outdoor theater group. It was a pretty entertaining performance. Unfortunately, I acquired a really massive migraine that ruined the rest of the evening for me. Luckily I was able to sleep while kind of leaning against Dana on the way home (I hope she didn't mind), then I went to sleep it off immediately after we got to the hotel.
We presented what we learned from this experience at a lunch-time meeting of a group of astronomers at the lab. I hope they were at least a little impressed. I wasn't really happy with my own part of the presentation, to tell the truth. Megan and I talked about the work we did with the CCD cameras. We had a really nice farewell dinner. Just about everybody we met on the whole trip was there. It was nice. We gave out cards that we had all signed and got everyone to sign our journals. Kind of cheesy and mostly BS but that's cool. After dinner we went o White Rock, the town in which Galen lives. There is a big rock at an intersection coming into town that people paint messages on. We got some spray paint and went down and wrote a message to Galen on the rock. There were some hooligans about so we decided that we should come back at about 1:00 AM just to make sure the rock was OK. It was. After that we went back to the hotel we stayed up in Dana and Megan's room and signed each other's journals. Dana wrote some really flattering stuff in mine. That girl is too much. One thing that she wrote is that she saw a lot of herself in me, but as far as I'm concerned I see in her much of what I want to be. I began to realize that I am actually going to miss the people that I met here. My desires to be at home in Portland overshadowed the fact that this was such a valuable experience, that the people I met here will be recalled in my memory quite fondly. I hope to meet up with every one of them again someday.
I departed on about two hours of sleep. It was really pretty sad to see everyone go and then leave myself. I wish more of my experiences could be as meaningful as this one was.