Inauguration Day

So last Tuesday, I was getting ready for school and realized that I would much rather stay at home and watch the inauguration, than to go to my class. Though, I have to wonder what kind of unpatriotic professor decides to hold class on the day of one of the most historical presidential inaugurations that I may ever live through. Wait a second, Democratic president, BYU proffessor, the wheels are turning.

Anyway, I really enjoyed seeing the inauguration, I was awed by how many people were there. I heard that almost 2 million people came from all different parts of the United States to watch President Obama take the oath of office. (On a humorous side note, they must have been pretty disappointed at the akward situation that insued while the oath was being taken. If you don't know what I am talking about, get on YouTube.com and look up a video of Obama being sworn in. Kind of funny!) I really love the way President Obama speaks. He is very inspiring and I think that the American people in general are very excited about his presidency. I am sure that many people do not agree with his politics, but it is an awesome thing to have an African-American president, especially one who is so popular. I feel that he is the right person to break that barrier and I hope that he will do well in office.

All in all, I think that our country has a lot of reasons to celebrate. It is no small thing that power has transferred peacefully from one executive to another, especially one who would not have been able to vote 50 years ago. America has broken an important barrier this year and it is good to know that I was there to see it happen!

Astronomy

So, you all know that I am into astronomy. So much into it that it is my major. I have loved astronomy since I was a kid, and I am very excited that I get to be a part of the astronomical community in general. I recently attended a meeting of the American Astronomical Society where I presented a poster on some research that I helped my professor with. It was a very fun and exciting experience. Two-thousand astronomers in the same building. Wow!

I also work in the astronomy department as a TA for an observational astronomy class. It is fairly enjoyable, I get to help students learn how to use the telescope and take scientific data. This allows me to spend a lot of time at the ESC at night doing homework and answering questions. Most of the time we look at variable stars or open star clusters, meaning that the pictures we take are just fields of stars. There is not anything very magnificent in taking pictures of star fields, but once in a while we get a chance to take some fun pictures. This is a picture of the Hourglass Nebula that I took while helping some intro astronomy students with a project.

I also took pictures of the Orion Nebula (M42) when I was taking the observational astronomy class. This isn't the true colors of the Orion Nebula, but I really like how the picture looks.

This is two different versions of the same picture of Jupiter. In one I have the contrast set so that you can see the stripes on the planet, and on the other, I have the contrast set so that you can see the Galilean moons.

These final set of pictures are pictures that I took of the moon during the August 2007 total lunar eclipse. Usually, the moon is too bright for us to take pictures of, but since most of the light was blocked by the shadow of the earth, I could see it fairly well. I plan on trying to make a mosaic out of these four pictures, and if I ever succeed in doing this, I will post it.