Chelen Johnson
Cosmic dIRt is examining the Spitzer Enhanced Imaging Products catalog to find the most unusual and faintest infrared excess objects serendipitously detected by the Spitzer Space Telescope.
I have found that “real astronomy” involves a lot of data processing. In addition, I have found that collaboration is a very important aspect of the process.
I didn't anticipate meeting engineers and graphic artists [at the AAS].
Participating in NITARP has made me more confident about teaching Astronomy and communicating to students about how archive Astronomy research is done. They are surprised to learn that even THEY could do Astronomy research. My students and I had such a experience (they LOVED the JPL tour) and I'd love to participate again because I have some new students that I think would love this program!