Published: June 15, 2008
Alekzandir Morton and Thomas Travagli presented their research on determining the redshift of S5 0716+714 at the California State Science Fair and were awarded first place in the Senior Division of Physics and Astronomy. They were mentored by SSC scientist Mark Lacy. The students were awarded a $1000 scholarship each. In addition, they successfully concluded in their project that it was possible to determine a redshift for the target and are considering sumitting their research to a refereed science journal. They have now graduated high school and are both pursuing careers in astronomy. They presented their research at the Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society, the Stockton Astronomical Society, the Antioch Unified School District School Board and other venues. Articles about them were published by the Contra Costa Times and in the Antioch Press.
John Michael Santiago, who assisted with the data reduction on the WZ Sge project, recieved a 4th place award at the Contra Costa Science and Engineering Fair. He also presented his research to the Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society, the Stockton Astronomical Society, and the Antioch Unified School District School Board. "JM" is graduating this year along with Alekzandir and Thomas, and his assistance in the WZ Sge project and the school's planetarium will be missed.
Student Ame Bartlebaugh has begun work on the NGC 4051 project with Varoujan Gorjian's group. Jeff Adkins, Babs Sepulveda, and Chris Martin met during RBSE training in June in Tucson and discussed possible warm-up activities for students preparing to visit the SSC. In addition we attempted to collect images from the GLAST GTN network but the status of those images is unknown at this time. Kevin McLin at Sonoma State is assisting us with this project from the data reduction and analysis end.
Presentations about the projects listed above were made by Jeff Adkins at the California Partnership Academy Conference, the Mt. Diablo Astronomical Society, the Stockton Astronomical Society, and several other venues. The Student Project was based on a target originally selected from the GTN quasar list hosted by Sonoma State. The data reduction techniques were based on methods originally used in the Hands-On-Universe program but adapted by students at DVHS for images collected through the New Mexico Skies program. New Mexico Skies was used on the Student Research Project in previous years. Also, information about the project was presented at the summer RBSE training in Tucson.