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Summer Visit - 2012 - C-WAYS

The summer visit to Caltech is 3-4 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 C-WAYS team came to visit in July 2012. The core team educators attended, plus 12 students, and two additional scientists.  Dr. JD Armstrong (LCOGT/UH) and Dr. Babar Ali (IPAC) also assissted.

Quotes

  • Most surprising (for me anyway) was how little I actually knew about astronomy. I always thought I knew more than I actually did, but now I can positively say that through this program I learned more than most adults I know in this field.
  • "Real astronomy" involves a lot of data analysis. It involves a large amount of time spent at a computer rather than at a telescope. Astronomers have to know a lot more about programming than I had expected.
  • Real Astronomy is doing all the data research. It is not just about viewing [through] a telescope. It's about reading the numbers and understanding it.
  • [During the visit,] I came to learn that programming and utilizing the software and computer programs as efficiently as possible was a necessity. Without these programs, our research would be next to impossible. However, just having the software and using it wasn't enough. I quickly learned that investigating the details, applying programming skills, and manipulating our computers would greatly improve our abilities to analyze and begin processing the data. This was also one of the more interesting tasks we attacked. It made us ask questions, taste defeat, but not accept it. It gave us opportunities to learn from one another, especially the teachers and professionals we were extremely lucky to have available.
  • I know astronomy relies on computer programming skills, but I was surprised to learn how much it relies on them.

Related Teams

Summer Visit - 2012 - C-WAYS