Update

Hey everyone, I haven't put anything up in a while, and I feel real bad about it. I realize that my blog is probably a daily stop in your internet surfing and there hasn't been anything new for a long time. For most of you there hasn't been anything interesting in an even longer time. So, I thought I would just do a quick update on our lives.

Kelly is doing really good. She has started going to a chiropracter every week or so, which makes her life way better. Despite the fact that she is no longer morning sick, the annoyances of pregnancy continue to haunt our house. She has had a lot of back pain and discomfort and sore muscles. Going to the chiropracter helps her out a lot and she always sounds a million times better when she gets home. Despite her aches and pains she has been really active around the house. She has set about trying to clean and organize the whole house, including moving furniture.(Very fun times-how many times does furniture have to move to be in the right spot?) She has also started working on her quilt again and it should be done really soon. We are excited about the baby coming and she is WAY excited to start getting "cute" baby things.

As for me, I am still plugging away at school. I have about three more weeks of classes until finals, and I definately don't feel ready for them. I have spent a lot of time working on my research and even presented last Saturday at the Spring Research Conference. It went well enough that I am pleased with the overall results. I will continue to work on the project and the writing of it over the next few months, with a goal to have it completely submitted by June.

Kelly's birthday was a few weeks ago, here is a pic or two. Hope you all are doing well.

Spring Research Conference

I just got the news that my abstract was accepted for the Spring Research Conference! This is sort of exciting for me since I will be presenting research that I have actually done the analysis for (as opposed to my presentation at the AAS meeting where I was merely a peon). I will be presenting at 12:15 on March 21. I am not sure if it is something people are invited to, I think it is. If you are interested in coming, let me know and I will figure it out. Also, if you aren't interested in coming, don't feel bad. Attending a research conference for the department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences is definately something I would not go to unless I was presenting. Either way, I will let you know how it turns out.

Publishing

Hello again everyone. Kelly and I have been doing all right, just having fun and working and what-not. The new exciting news for me is that the paper that I am the second author for has been accepted for publication. It is set to be published in the April issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. This is pretty exciting for me since it will be the first astronomy paper that I am an author for that is being published. When it is online I will send out the URL so that you can read it if you want. Along the same lines, I have also picked a project to do for my senior thesis. I am hopefully going to present the intial results of the research at the Spring Research Conference in March, and will hopefully be done with the thesis by the end of April. Also, if everything goes well, I will re-write it and try to get it published in the American Astrophysical Journal sometime this summer. Below I have included the abstract that I submitted for the research conference.

Analysis of the Hα and Hβ Temperature Curves of ∂ Scuti and ∂ Serpentis

In ∂ Scuti type variable stars, the two prominent spectral features are the Hα and Hβ hydrogen Balmer lines. Using a Strömgren color-index centered on one of these lines, an index can be produced that will give the temperature of the star. Both of these lines can be used for this temperature calibration. Using spectral data taken from the 1.2-m telescope at Dominion Astrophysical Observatory on two variables, ∂ Scuti and ∂ Serpentis, we applied the temperature index to each line to make a graph of temperature vs. time. Since these stars are pulsating variables, we expect to see them oscillate over time with the pulsation period of the star. Also, we expect to see the separate temperature calibrations in phase with each other. Here, we will present the preliminary results of this analysis.

The Baby

Hello again everyone! I have great news for this post. Kelly and I went to the doctor today and she had an ultrasound. The technician lady was really nice and somehow knew what everything was. She kept wanting the baby to move so that she could see different things, so she would push on Kelly's stomach to get it to move around. Kelly didn't appreciate that too much, but we were able to see the baby's hands and arms and feet. We saw the spine, the brain, the face. Our baby appears to be perfectly healthy. This makes both Kelly and I feel so much better. I think that both of us were preparing for the worst possible scenarios that we could think of. We were both worried that the baby would be crippled or not have a heart or something like that. Lucky us though, our baby is wonderful and looks healthy.

Now I am sure that you all want to know what we are going to have. I can't stop smiling as I type this. We are going to have a girl!! A perfect, healthly little girl. I really wanted a little girl and am just so excited. With all of the fret and worry that has gone into this baby in her short little life, I am just so happy she is healthy.

Wedding Pictures

One thing that I really wanted to do on this blog is to post some wedding pictures of Kelly and I. I still plan to post a few...someday. Until then, I will let you all know that I have put a lot (but not all) of our wedding pictures up on facebook.com for people to view. If any of you are not familiar with facebook, it is a networking website that started out as exclusively for college students. It has now grown large enough that anyone can join and network with their friends and family. Anyway, on my facebook profile, I have posted about 300 or so of the pictures from Kelly and my wedding. Enjoy!

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.