February Blogs

Hide and Seek

Week of 2/1-2/5

Weekly Goals:

Complete at least 5 hours of Original Work
Finish up the star classification project
Finish the Mentor Log
Submit the Evidence of Learning Assignment due at the end of the week.

Weekly updates:

Monday:
- Rechecked and published the weekly blog
- In class we were given time to work on our Original Work and was introduced to the evidence of learning assignments and mentor log due at the end of the week.
Tuesday:
- I worked on my Original work and worked on researching how to read a gravity input and plot that on the spectrum using synphot.
Wednesday:
- Spent more time on my original work and tried to code using synphot during class
- Researched the topic of the week, types of blackholes
Thursday:
- Started the Evidence of Learning Assignment
- Finished up the blackhole research and wrote down my questions for the code.
Friday:
- Had a mentor meeting with Ms. Hutchison,revised my progress this week, went through some questions and decided on the goal for next week.
- Finished the Evidence of Learning Assignment and turned it in
- Updated the mentor log and submitted the whole mentor log
- Began working on the weekly blog.

Weekly Reflection:

When I used to play hide and seek as a kid I hated hiding. It was boring being in one place for that long and I usually got lonely after a little while. But now hiding would be fun. Fun to take a little break and hide. But that is my plan for the weekend since I have successfully fulfilled everything I wanted during this week. The main problem I was facing during the week was that I could not figure out how to use syphot. I tried downloading it multiple ways and read various different articles and was still not able to figure out how to use it. I kept facing an attribute error as it wouldn’t include synphot as a command from astropy. In the end I showed my mentor my progress and asked her how I would fix the error I was facing and be able to get the output I wanted. I learned, however, that the code was also new to her and we worked together to try and figure out how to solve it. Despite our efforts, we kept running into the same problem and in the end Ms.Hutchison showed me a way to plot it by using the .plot function. We finished this code during our meeting for the star classification program and decided to spend one last week cleaning up the code and make it more precise. The second hour of the meeting, we discussed blackholes: most specifically supermassive blackholes, their structure, formation, role in space and how astronomers study them to gain more information about our universe and its early days.

When time flies:

Week of 02/08 - 02/12

Weekly Goals:

Complete at least 5 hours of Original Work
Clean up the star classification project
Begin outline for the lunar phases project
Finish the Original Work Log

Weekly updates:

Monday:
- Rechecked and published the weekly blog
- Worked on the first goal of the star classification project
Tuesday:
- Introduced to the presentation on any topic next class
- Worked on creating a rough draft for the presentation
- Researched the topic of the week, dark matter and dark energy
Wednesday:
- Spent more time on my original work and finished the second goal of the code to finish and center the title for the graph of the star on a spectrum.
- Finished up the presentation prep and practiced it
Thursday:
- Finished up the dark matter research and wrote down my questions for the code.
Friday:
- Had a mentor meeting with Ms. Hutchison, revised my progress this week, went through some questions and decided on the goal for next week.
- Updated the OW log and submitted the log
- Began working on the weekly blog.

Weekly Reflection:

This week was a little disappointing compared to the usual and this was mostly due to the fact that I had not completed the 5 minute presentation in class as well as I had wanted to. Despite my preparation and practice, during the presentation, I managed to mess up and wasn’t able to deliver the clean conclusion I had wanted to. To prevent this from occurring again in the next presentation, I will start practicing in front of other people, so I don’t freak out when I actually see people react to my presentation. Other than the presentation, I have made great progress in the star classification code and have successfully completed it to my satisfaction. The weekly research I conduct on a different astronomy concept each week has greatly improved my knowledge and excitement towards astronomy. Furthermore, by learning the various theories, models, people, events, and research papers related to a variety of topics, I have also been able to work on narrowing my interest for the future. Overall, my time during each week seems shorter and shorter than the next, but I will still work on making the time I have left worth it. As Mr.Pirtle has mentioned, the number of weeks till the end of the year, and the end of my ISM experience shortens by the week, and I should continue to spend my time wisely to make this time truly memorable.

A flurry of snow and trouble! :

Week of 02/15 - 02/19

Weekly Goals:

Start the lunar phases project
- Focus on research on the basemap function and its purpose and how it is used.
Research on the Hubble Tuning Fork

Weekly updates:

Monday:
- Rechecked and published the weekly blog
- School was canceled for the rest of the week due to the snowstorm
Tuesday:
- I started doing research on the Basemap function
Wednesday:
- Researched the topic of the week, Hubble Tuning Fork
Thursday:
- Finished up the coding for luna.py and decided to use cartopy instead of basemap
- Finished up the Hubble Tuning Fork research and wrote down my questions for the code.
Friday:
- Had a mentor meeting with Ms. Hutchison, revised my progress this week, went through some questions and decided on the goal for next week.
- Began drafting the email to send to my mentor for the feedback form
- Updated the mentor log and the original work log
- Began working on the weekly blog.

Weekly Reflection:

This week was a whirlwind of trouble. Although the snowstorm in texas caused all schools to close down and affected electricity, power, and water for many communities, I continued to work on my original work. After contacting my mentor and making sure that the mentor meeting at the end of the week was still to be conducted this week I began working on the new luna.py code. After almost 3 hours of troubleshooting when the base map function I was to originally use didn't work, I was able to figure out that basemap was no longer a function used and was instead replaced by cartopy. However, even when I used the cartopy function by downloading it then importing it, I was unable to make it work. I was unable to work on the code past that point so I decided to ask my mentor about it during our meeting. During the meeting, by retracing my steps we were able to figure out my initial download of the basemap function had downgraded certain functions within the anaconda package making the cartopy function unable to work. After figuring this problem out, we decided on the goals for next week and talked a little more about how I would be coding the rest of the program. Next, we began our discussion on the Hubble Tuning Fork and I was able to learn a lot through this conversation with Ms.Hutchison. Despite the hurdles faced this week, I was still able to move along in my original work and I look forward to the progression of this code over the next few weeks.

The Bleak Async Week :

Week of 02/22 - 02/26

Weekly Goals:

Work on the luna.py code
Complete more than 5 hours on the Original Work
Research major telescopes and the man discoveries by each
Update the digital portfolio by the end of the week

Weekly updates:

Monday:
- Rechecked and published the weekly blog
- Spent time working on luna.py code
Tuesday:
- I started doing research on space telescopes like Spitzer, Hubble and James Webb
Wednesday:
- Spent time updating the digital portfolio with all the recent assignments
- Edited the email for the mentor student feedback form and sent it
Thursday:
- Finished up the coding for luna.py and created the major figures like the black moon, mini moon and earth
- Finished up the telescope research about ground telescopes like Keck and Alma
- Wrote down my questions for the code.
Friday:
- Had a mentor meeting with Ms. Hutchison, revised my progress this week, went through some questions and decided on the goal for next week.
- Updated the mentor log and the original work log
- Began working on the weekly blog.

Weekly Reflection:

With the week being asynchronous, I got a lot more time to work on all my assignments. I was able to spend a fair amount of time this week on the luna.py code and I was satisfied with the process I had accomplished by the mentor meeting. I used a function in cartopy to create a circle and with the circle I was able to color it and add features to denote the different figures. It took quite a bit of research to figure out how to change the shape and color of the circles, but by Friday I was able to complete it. However during our mentor meeting, by looking at the reference code for the ;lunar phases, we found that there was a simpler function called fill that creates a circle that is easier to edit than the function I had used. Thus one of my major goals by the next meeting is to group the mini moon and the earth under one subplot and use fill for one or both of the figures. Using fill, it would also allow me to edit the position of the mini moon easier, which would make it simpler when I code the position of the moon next. We also talked about the telescopes and I was able to listen to Ms.Hutchison’s first hand experience in working with telescopes at observatories and how she went through the process of applying for them.