• 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

  • [the most surprising thing] was how much the people at JPL, IPAC, and Caltech in general seemed to really like their jobs!
  • It was surprising to learn how much programming and data analysis are currently dominating the astronomy field. It seems like today’s astronomy is primarily data analysis, no one is actually looking at any stars. I get it, because we’ve pretty much exhausted the visual part of the spectrum, but I had never really thought about it before.
  • [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.
  • The best thing is being able to work in a group in person to see the level of detail on the topics. You have the ability to interact more freely. Plus you can build team dynamics during and after the day.
  • I think in order to be an astronomer you have to be smart, hard working, and really like data. You also need to know computer programming. And, based on what everyone on that Zoom call said, you need to be good at working on a team. There is more teamwork than I would have guessed.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2022 - SNAG490