Welcome back!!
This week was an exciting one for I made my first visitation to ASU. As I stated before, I was a little nervous, especially when I couldn't find my advisor (we'll get to that in a second). After going there for a couple of hours, I got extremely exciting for the upcoming weeks. I plan on sharing with you my experiences at the cosmology lab.
I arrived at the ASU lab around 12:20 pm. I walked into the Goldwater building and made my way to the fifth floor. As I left the elevator, I was greeted with a wall covered with stars. The wall read 'BANG!: Cosmology and Beyond". I continued around the corner and asked around for my advisor's office. I found it eventually, but he wasn't there. I thought it best just to wait at the office for a few minutes, but it reached a quarter till 1:00, and I wasn't sure where the meeting was. After asking around more, I found a graduate student who was actually part of the meeting. He took me into the room and we waited until my advisor came in.
The meeting itself was really interesting. I was in a room with three graduate students and a professor, all studying astronomy. One was working on supernovae, another on exoplanets, and the last was working on gravitational waves. In fact, as they were discussing what they had done that week, I could understand what they were talking about. The one student working on supernovae is allowing me to use some of his data to use for the Hubble Constant. At about 2:00pm was when the meeting ended. I enjoyed the hour listening and talking with people who work in the field.
Afterward, my advisor and I went to one of their labs. He showed me around. A lot of what they were working on in there was related to optical systems. I saw lenses all over the place and a few telescopes as well.
I did find out, however, that they were having problems with the telescopes, so I have to put the project on hold for a week or two. I asked him what I could do before he gets the data and the telescopes running, and he said I should read up on the functionality of telescopes, the constellations and their locations during different seasons, more information on supernovae and their relation to the Hubble Constant. He also mentioned that I can come in and ask for help if I have problems. He was a really nice person, and I'm looking forward to working with him.
Come back next week!
I am glad you thoroughly enjoyed your meeting with your advisor! That's a bummer that the telescopes are not functioning properly, but reading more literature may help you progress your project even further in the future. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to hear you enjoyed your interactions with both astronomers and graduate students, and that the meeting went well! I personally love seeing the physical labs where research is performed, so I'm glad you were able to have that experience at ASU. I'm sorry your project is being put on hold, but I'm sure you'll find a way to further your research so I wish you the best of luck!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you and I both got lost at ASU the first time we were looking for our advisors. Sorry to hear that your project is experiencing some delays, but I'm sure you'll be fine. Maybe I'll see you at ASU when we both go to our labs.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had a first good week at the lab. I'm really excited for you to have this opportunity working with professionals in a field that you're interested in. More so, what was wrong with the telescopes? Have an awesome week!
ReplyDeleteThe telescopes are not balanced properly.
Delete