• NASA
  • IPAC

Summer Visit - 2022 - SNAG490

The summer visit to Caltech is 4 days long and is the only time during the year of work when all the participants on the team come together in person to work intensively on the data. Generally, each educator may bring up to two students to the summer visit that are paid for by NITARP, and they may raise funds to bring two more. The teams work at Caltech; the summer visit typically includes a half-day tour of JPL, which is a favorite site for group photos. Reload to see a different set of quotes.

The SNAG490 team came to visit in June-July 2022. The 5 core team educators attended, plus 5 students.

Quotes

  • [student:] I feel stupid a lot of the time when doing this work and it felt reassuring to hear Luisa say that it's okay.
  • [the most surprising thing] was how much the people at JPL, IPAC, and Caltech in general seemed to really like their jobs!
  • [student:] Real astronomy is having confidence in the steps you took and the work you achieved using those steps but also being willing to receive feedback and critism. It's also curiosity.
  • Astronomy is not really what I thought it would be. It is much more computer programming and data analysis than I realized. It is still interesting, just not what I expected at all. Which is good, actually, because I am really learning a lot.
  • [The qualities you need to be an astronomer include] The understanding of how the details you pay attention to makes you an expert in a small part that fits into a bigger picture. No one is an expert in every aspect of the whole field of astronomy! It is collaborative, so working on a team is of utmost importance.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2022 - SNAG490