Chelen Johnson
I didn't anticipate meeting engineers and graphic artists [at the AAS].
So many of us science teachers do labs where the end is known (which is sometimes necessary to make sure they fit in a class period and that the students understand the concept we're trying to learn) but that's not really science.
I’ve always thought that probably most astronomers were just normal people who had a passion for astronomy, and my experience confirmed that. I felt like many of the astronomers I talked to were able to have normal conversations as well as “wow” me with lots of data and analysis.