by JD H.
In theory, our research is straight forward: observe an asteroid, do the calculations, and model the orbit. If only it were that simple. As someone who wants to be a mathematician in the future, I am all too susceptible to this oversimplified view of science and observation as a linear process neatly building on itself like a mathematical proof. Instead, it is fraught with unforeseen problems and setbacks.
So far my team’s asteroid has remained elusive despite our best efforts. Last observation the night was calm and clear, perfect to observe the asteroid. My team was already down a member due to COVID, so when it came time to observe it was just my other teammate, a TA, and I who made the journey to Morehead Observatory. I finished off the last of the coffee in my cup (a motif of SSP) as we made our way on the elevator to the telescope, hopeful to see our asteroid. We made our way to the observing room lit with eerie red lights and started with a 5 minute exposure of the sky. The image that came back in no way matched our star chart no matter how much we rotated the chart and squinted. I even called someone in the computer lab to make and send a new star chart to us, but even this one did not match what we saw in the image. However, we continued to take exposures as the night went on hoping to see an asteroid streaking through them. Instead our images only proceeded to become darker and darker causing more and more confusion. It was well over halfway through our observation session when the TA looked up and noticed that the dome was not moving with the telescope.
Oh.
My.
God.
We had forgotten to have the dome move with the telescope. We were taking images of the ceiling. We all shared a collective facepalm as the dome moved to match up with the telescope after we programmed it to do so. If it were only that simple. The images that we got next were some of the best that our group has taken yet, however they still did not match up with our star chart. Nonetheless, we downloaded all the images we took after observing hopeful that it was an error with our star chart.
It was the next day that I learned that the telescope software crashed during the observing group that went before us throwing off the calibration of the telescope. That was the reason why our images did not match the star chart. The telescope was not aiming where we programmed it to. All the data we collected that night was not useful. To add insult to injury, the next day my other teammate tested positive for COVID.
So yeah, I was pretty frustrated with these setbacks. I imagined that every night we would see the asteroid streaking through the sky allowing us to collect high quality data. However, after three observation secessions our asteroid has still not been identified. Then I remember that we are doing science. Real science. We are not doing the end of chapter exercises in some textbook with the answers in the back. Rather this is the real world with real problems that cannot be predicted. Overcoming these problems is what this program means to me. I am surrounded by wonderful professors and TAs who are always there for me when I have a question. There is no other way I would like to spend my summer than being challenged by hard problems surrounded by other students who are just as passionate about academics as I am. Where else can you find a group of students who will sit through six hours of lecture and still have the energy to talk about tic-tac-toe on higher dimensional manifolds after dinner? I know that by overcoming these problems I will feel so much more accomplished than when I solve a problem in a textbook, and I will be more prepared to conduct research in the real world.
About Me:
Hi, I’m JD from Clinton, Mississippi here to prove that southern boys ain’t dumb. I attend the Mississippi School for Math and Science, and my main interests are math and theoretical physics. In my free time you can find me solving integrals, watching YouTube, reading, or flying a cessna 172.
