6:00 am: It’s the first day of July! Alarm set at 6:00 A.M. Today is a special day as for our 5th Astro lesson we went on a field trip to TMO (Tortugas Mountain Observatory)
6:45 am: Everyone is on the bus at 6:45 A.M.. The cafeteria prepared burritos for us to eat on our drive to TMO.
7:00 am: Mostly hyped at this moment! The mountain doesn’t seem that high (see the picture below), it can’t be that bad, right?
7:45 am: Never mind, I definitely underestimated this mountain. I’m so tired and I ran out of water. (A shout out to everyone coming to New Mexico, always bring a FULL water bottle!)
8:00 am: Dr. Jon Holtzman talks to us about TMO’s history and the many components of the observatory. He is a great speaker, and we are excited for his lecture tomorrow! Leaving the observatory, we have learned a lot more about how the telescope that we use for observing works. We got a sticker as a small souvenir at the end! I mean, who doesn’t love stickers?
10:05 am: No lectures in the morning after our hike. Got to get some rest before the lecture in the afternoon.
12:00: It’s lunchtime now. Lunch is good as usual.
1:00 pm: Lecture time! Dr. Rengstorf teaches us how to us AIJ and then we get to experience how to locate an asteroid with AIJ in the computer lab with sample data. What is SUPER EXCITING is one of my teammates, Bryan, locates our asteroid (2007 LR32) with data we got from LCO the night before! Looking forward to get more images/data this week! Wish us luck for some clear nights!
4:00 pm: Time to finish the second math p-set (and dear Python is waiting…).
5:45 pm: Dinnertime!
7:00 pm: Dorm meeting in the classroom with our TAs followed by our 1st research meeting. Our Astro Progress Chart (…not sure if that’s the name of it) is posted and my team got our first sticker for locating our asteroid (Another sticker for the day!).
8:30 pm: After the meetings, it’s time to go back to the computer lab! The has definitely been some struggles. When I run the program, it displays a weirdly shaped orbit. Emm… Oh! I forgot to convert a few values from degree into radians.
10:00 pm: So nice that I get to go back to the dorm a little earlier than usual, which gives me time to do the laundry.
0:00 am: Can’t wait for the guest speaker tomorrow (or should I say today?)! And Dr. Le is gonna teach us multivariable. Better get a good night sleep to be prepared for the day!
7/1/2024
Hi, I am Amanda from Chicago, Illinois. I love Math and Physics and am super exciting about everything I will learn & experience at SSP NMSU Astro I. In my free time, I like to play tennis, play the piano, listen to music and learn languages (I’m on an 856-day streak on Duolingo :D).
