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AAS - 2012

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.

The 2011 and 2012 NITARP teams attended the 2012 January AAS meeting in Austin, TX. The 2011 class was presenting results and the 2012 class was starting up. We sent about 60 people to the AAS (the largest delegation to date) and had a grand time. Please see the special article on NITARP at the AAS. We also got a smattering of coverage in local media outlets.

Quotes

  • The most interesting part of the trip for me was seeing the numerous amounts of presentations and posters that all required so much work for this one week.
  • Astronomers dream about above and beyond. They laugh when someone says impossible. When other people say impossible, astronomers say just give me a couple years, a large computer, and some duct tape and I'll have a working model.
  • I think that the most surprising thing about it was how young everyone was! I absolutely did not expect that, maybe because the amateur community is so much older by comparison, and is mainly composed of retired people.
  • Overall, this experience has been very gratifying and I have learned more about astronomy than I ever thought I would.
  • The number one thing that the new people should know is that this experience is one of the best they will every have. You are meeting with people who share similar goals that is to learn and discover new things.

Related Teams

AAS - 2012