SG+Week+of+October+22

Oct. 22 - I attempted to send in my Task List for the Asteroids Project I'm working on with Murphy McGraw last night, but the email I sent it to did not work. Therefore, I forwarded it to the OTHER e-mail address.

Task List:

1. Review Murphy's Powerpoint 2. Review NOAO website (list of links) 3. Annotated Bibliography -Say stuff about each link -Post this information to Wikispaces 5. Observation -Schedule observation time with a Graduate student at ND 6. Establish contact with Joe Ribato (?spelling?) -Ask you for this information -Introduce ourselves/what want to accomplish 7. Research -Find other asteroid resources, annotate them

Today I will review Murphy's powerpoint and in doing so, I will most likely review the NOAO website. That will probably take the rest of this class time, but I will also attempt to review the discussion boards and comment on them since I seemingly have not written a single comment on them. Ever. -Sophia Gurule

Oct. 23 - In yesterday's research of Murphy's powerpoint, I learned not only some new details about asteroids that I had not previously known but also their significance in both understanding asteroids and observing them. For example, Murphy kept mentioning albedo and initially, I thought to myself, what is this //albedo?// After reviewing the notes of his powerpoint, I learned their were an "object's measure of reflectivity, or intrinsic brightness." I figured this was probably very useful information when it came to observing asteroids - which is primarily what Murphy and I will be doing. The next question, however, was how does this exactly apply to our future observations? Since an //albedo// is a measurement of intrinsic brightness, this means one will have to understand what the particular measurement will mean; for example, an albedo of 1.0 means that the object is perfectly white, or a perfectly reflecting surface. Simultaneously, an albedo of 0.0 is a perfectly absorbing surface, or completely black. I figured this would be a key way in which Murphy and I will observe our little asteroids. I learned some other things, but this was probably the most vital of the information. -Sophia Gurule

Oct. 24 - Today Murphy and I chose websites to annotate on a regularly basis. Mine is [|Asteroid Comet Impact Hazards]. I also began exploring the [|Minor Planet Center] website which I really didn't understand, to be honest. After learning more from Dr. Loughran about the annotated bibliography, i.e. the format for which it should be written, and after doing some more research among the external links on Asteroids, Murphy and I posted our Annotated Bibliography websites on the Asteroids section of SJHSRC wikispace. CHECK IT OUT! -Sophia

Oct. 26 - Wasn't here yesterday and didn't do any research either. I saw that Murphy began his annotation of NOAO and I plan on getting a few links down today for my own website. Dr. Loughran spoke of this comet which is visible to ze eye, and this Saturday he's attempting to capture an image of it from New Mexico. If that goes well, then on Monday, he, the astroimagers, and ourselves will plan on capturing an image of the comet from Jordan Hall at Notre Dame. That should be interesting. I'm not really sure what will be required of Murphy and myself, but we shall see. Off to AN-NO-TATE!!!!!!!!! -Sophia