• NASA
  • IPAC

AAS - 2013

The Winter American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is the largest meeting of professional astronomers in the world. NITARP educators attend an AAS first to meet their team, then they go home and work remotely for much of the year, and then attend an AAS to present their results.  At any given AAS, then, we could have two NITARP classes attending - those finishing up, and those getting started. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

We were out in force at the AAS 2013 meeting in Long Beach, CA! A record number of NITARP-affiliated people attended, including the 2012 class finishing up and the 2013 class getting going. The 80 or so NITARP-affiliated folks made up about 3% of the AAS attendees.

Special article on AAS attendees!  And don't miss Danielle Miller's blog!

Quotes

  • I cannot put into words how amazing and priceless the experience was. Spending a week with other people interested in science to such a high degree helped me to grow as a scientist and as a student.
  • [student:] I am extremely glad I participated in this project. The thing that I am most glad that I learned was how we sense objects using telescopes and cameras. This project also solidified my understanding of the electromagnetic spectrum. I had been taught about both of these topics on a few occasions in the past, but I never understood how it all fits together prior to this project.
  • I am thrilled with the general friendliness of the scientists. I was made to feel at ease as a participant in the program. It is evident that everything is extremely organized and structured in such a way that a participant gets the most possible out of their time at the meeting. There is time to meet previous participants finishing up, new people on the new teams, the scientists, the students, and many other scientists not affiliated with the project. Just being around cutting edge technology and current astronomy projects is mind-blowing.
  • I did not anticipate how interested everyone [was] who came to our poster [..and] in our research and methods.
  • I always knew as an astronomy educator that I [would] miss out on the joy of discovery. Sure, I've worked with many astronomers over the years - but it was mainly to interview them about their explorations, their findings. The scientists were often excited and willing to share their work - to describe what they found, and what it all means. I wondered what it's like to achieve and feel that -- to see what's never been seen! I was always curious on how they did it exactly. Sure, I knew it was a lot of work -- lots of math, physics, time, expertise, etc. But I never knew the steps, the details. I never could fathom the depth of what a true astronomer does.

Related Teams

AAS - 2013