Today seemed to fly by. I think it was because we are getting used to being here. Earlier I spent half my time freaking out because of spiders and wishing I was back in my spider free home. Now, I just can't believe our trip is almost over. Soon we will return to the land of school, summer assignments, and busy weekends. I would be lying if I said I'm not excited to be back though. While I have gotten attached to this place and part of me wants to stay here forever, I'm thrilled to get back to wifi and phone reception.
Last night a large amount of us had stayed up until 12:30 playing ninja and telling scary stories. So you can imagine how tired we were in the morning when we had to go through our same routine regardless of how much sleep we got. Once we had put all our clothes on the right way and drowsily eaten breakfast, we headed off to our first event. We gathered in the auditorium and discussed our data from the 40 ft. telescope. Then we listened to an interesting presentation about Lorimer bursts. Once the lecture was over, we split into groups again. First, my group did the "Fun with Electronics" activity. This was by far the most interesting and fun thing we did today. First of all, we got to build a circuit that would make a couple of LEDs blink. While this was already fun, the best part was that we got to use a soldering iron for the first time! I am so proud that I was able to get it right the first time and not burn myself but I'm a little worried about how (or if) I'm going to get that through airport security.....
Anyway, after that we did the "Quiet Skies" activity where we took a handheld radio and walked around with it to try to find different places that caused interference. Think of it like Pokémon Go but for radio waves. It was fascinating to see what different sounds the interference from different objects caused at different frequencies. We also discovered a single working radio station amidst all of the noise. And while listening to a strange version of "California Dreaming" was quite refreshing, it also probably isn't good for the Green Bank Telescope or any of the other radio telescopes. Finally, we got to take a more detailed tour of the GBT control room. We got to take a look at how it is actually controlled and what the people do there. For example, since the shifts are 12 hours and operators often don't have to watch their screens extremely closely, there's even a treadmill for them if they feel the need to exercise.
Overall, it still feels like this trip is just starting and I don't think I'm ready to even think about leaving. I've met so many interesting people and learned about so many other places. Most importantly, I'm now more confident in my knowledge of pulsars and I am still so excited to continue working with them in the future and hopefully come back next year.
Last night a large amount of us had stayed up until 12:30 playing ninja and telling scary stories. So you can imagine how tired we were in the morning when we had to go through our same routine regardless of how much sleep we got. Once we had put all our clothes on the right way and drowsily eaten breakfast, we headed off to our first event. We gathered in the auditorium and discussed our data from the 40 ft. telescope. Then we listened to an interesting presentation about Lorimer bursts. Once the lecture was over, we split into groups again. First, my group did the "Fun with Electronics" activity. This was by far the most interesting and fun thing we did today. First of all, we got to build a circuit that would make a couple of LEDs blink. While this was already fun, the best part was that we got to use a soldering iron for the first time! I am so proud that I was able to get it right the first time and not burn myself but I'm a little worried about how (or if) I'm going to get that through airport security.....
Anyway, after that we did the "Quiet Skies" activity where we took a handheld radio and walked around with it to try to find different places that caused interference. Think of it like Pokémon Go but for radio waves. It was fascinating to see what different sounds the interference from different objects caused at different frequencies. We also discovered a single working radio station amidst all of the noise. And while listening to a strange version of "California Dreaming" was quite refreshing, it also probably isn't good for the Green Bank Telescope or any of the other radio telescopes. Finally, we got to take a more detailed tour of the GBT control room. We got to take a look at how it is actually controlled and what the people do there. For example, since the shifts are 12 hours and operators often don't have to watch their screens extremely closely, there's even a treadmill for them if they feel the need to exercise.
Overall, it still feels like this trip is just starting and I don't think I'm ready to even think about leaving. I've met so many interesting people and learned about so many other places. Most importantly, I'm now more confident in my knowledge of pulsars and I am still so excited to continue working with them in the future and hopefully come back next year.