Chelen Johnson
The Sharpless CHARcuterie Playground (SCHARP) team will be studying several targets selected from the Sharpless (1959) catalog to see if there are young stars therein.
I was also surprised [after the summer visit] not to be more tired. Don't get me wrong, I certainly took a five hour nap on Saturday after coming home on the red-eye from LA, but overall the week left me invigorated rather than exhausted.
I wanted to share this with you about one of the students I had on our team that explored star formation in Lynds dark nebulae (LDNs) [in 2008]. [He has since become involved with a big Air Force program at Michigan Tech in 2012.] [He] has often thanked me for getting him involved in NITARP research, having used that experience, in part, to get access to programs such as MTU's Aerospace Enterprise.
I discovered that meaningful astronomical research does not require access to meter-class observatories or a Beowulf cluster. Given the right professional to collaborate with, it is something that I'm able to do while still working at the planetarium.
