Ian Norfolk

Journal entries imported from the previous iteration of wisrd.org

IAN NORFOLK

4/12/22

This week we have much to do. Hopefully we can understand how to utilize the slewing software, the spectroscopy, and we have to create a poster. I will also be working in the board retreat on the 18th.

3/24/22

This month we ordered the spectrometer filter and began research on how to implement the technology. So far we are lacking the proper adapters to attach the filter so I will check my equipment to see if we can remedy the problem. If we can’t we will order an adapter.

2/23/22

This month we have had 2 events. Both unsuccessful due to an extreme malfunction of the camera and due to the extreme dimness of the targets. I recorded the podcast with Esme and organized a board meeting. i composed my draft for my WISRD article. Overall more could’ve been completed. For the future Reid and I must complete a series of tutorials for Shayna and we also should try to get ASCOM working.

1/31/22

Happy Bob Day! Over the weekend I set up an awesome poster to celebrate Bob Baker’s illustrious tenure in WISRD. This morning WISRD members met in the lab to surprise Bob. On the research based note this week we are preparing for two events coming next week. We have recently updated to the latest SharpCap and will be working on integrating that software into our system.

1/24/22

Started working on the poster.

1/21/22

This week I fixed a couple problems and taught some members how to utilize the PyMovie and PYOTE to ensure RECON effectiveness in the future. We also had a problem with a striped screw in one of the telescopes adapter so we determined what screw was needed to replace it. Luckily, I found the exact screw we needed in our extra accessories box.

1/12/22

Happy new years! Long time since the last update due to the break. Last week I was absent due to COVID exposure but Shayna and GAVRT member Lukas helped during an event on the 6th. This week I have been analyzing this events data.

12/8/21

Surprisingly no other RECON members showed up for the 75 minute WISRD period. The plan was to inmate ASCOM onto the telescope but this task is impossible to achieve alone so I instead will work on board ideas and more bureaucratic work.

Turns out I designed the the Senior Hoodies.

12/7/21

It has been more than a month since I updated my journal! In the past month much has been accomplished. We completed WISRD’s fall poster presentation successfully and Reid and I effectively hosted the presentation hosted by Dr. Guyon. We had a RECON event that was ruined by bad weather (foggiest I’ve ever seen Los Angeles). Despite this RECON is currently gaining ground in our quest for automation of the telescope by installing ASCOM and implementing it into the telescope system. We still have much to go but hopefully before break we can effectively utilize ASCOM to slew the telescope for us.

11/3/21

This week I completed the poster for RECON Data Analysis and helped multiple other poster teams create and edit their posters. Overall this week has had a theme of publication nd preparation as next week on Monday we have the poster presentation and on Tuesday I will represent WISRD in a meet the institute type presentation.

10/25/21

The previous week was an intense one. WISRD’s  RECON team attended a conference in Southern Nevada. Hosted by Marc Buie and John Keller of CU Boulder the objectives of this team meeting was to (1) record data of Eurybates occultation (2) discuss past RECON findings. The RECON team arrived to the CSN (College of Southern Nevada) Planetarium and began meeting with other teams from around the country. We were given a private tour of the planetarium and its accompanying museum. We went into presenting and discussed the campaign and its goals as well as what Lucy is. For context Lucy is a mission named after the earliest human known. The goal of the mission is to visit Jupiter’s trojans and learn more about the early Solar System. After the presentation the RECON team divided into observation teams for the main event and was split into E18 and E13. The next morning at 3:30 am the teams set up their equipment in the CSN parking lot and practiced observing the target. Both teams were successful in the practice event, the E13 group decided to drive to the site prematurely to get a lay of the land.  After that all teams returned to the hotel for sleep.

The next day had more presentation this time regarding the research gained over the past few months by Marc and the RECON team. He describe his research in detail from events in Spain, Senegal, and Texas. From Marc’s description the campaigns seemed to have been successful and good data was received. The second half of the presentation was spent reviewing the practice night and troubleshooting issues. The presentation concluded and teams prepared for the dress rehearsal that morning. The dress rehearsal was when all teams practiced the event in the desert as if it was actually occurring. This was successful for both teams.

Finally the last day of conferences involved introducing new software lien PyMovie and PyOT to the RECON teams as well as more troubleshooting from the dress rehearsal. After the meetings concluded the teams went to the sites the next morning and observed the occultation of Eurybates. Both teams did not observer the occultation. One due to being too far south another due to technical errors.

10/6/21

This week I have employed the RECON team to finish our presentations for the virtual launch parties for the Lucy and the James Webb Space Telescope launches coming up. Tonight the board will be convening at 7:00pm to discuss board activity and the shirts. Next week the seniors and I have college week so no WISRD activity but we will be attending a RECON conference from 17th to the 20th which will be exciting.

9/24/21

This week was productive. The team has neared finishing the Lucy presentation for the launch party. This week’s board meeting was lack luster to say the least. The board was extremely inactive and not a lot of input was added. To remedy this problem the board will vote at the next meeting to change to convening in Scott’s room on Mondays every week. The meetings will start 15 minutes after lunch starts and then a 20 minute weekly meeting will take place. Other than that the RECON team was informed of this year’s conference relating to Lucy.

9/22/21

Tonight I’ll be leading the 2nd board meeting of the 2021-2022 board session. We also have gained more information for the Lucy event/conference taking place over the 17th-20th of October. The WISRD RECON team seems highly excited about this and overall productivity has been high.

9/15/21

This week I worked on composing and sending out the WISRD T-Shirt survey. This years colors consists of Sand, Azalea, Orange, Red, and Heather Irish Green. I sent out the form for WISRD members to vote on and I’ll give it to Monday to review.

9/10/21

NASA has finally released the launch date for the James Webb Space Telescope! JWST is set to launch on December 18th finally giving us an actual deadline for the launch party. In other news we have finally gotten the data back for the September 4th event and my colleague Reid should hopefully have that analyzed by the end of next week.

9/8/21
This last week was quite eventful for the RECON team. We attended another RECON event on Saturday morning at 2 am. This event went successfully despite hindrances. We are now back in the lab and have the 1st board meeting of 2021-2022. I hope my directorial duties are meet.

8/30/21

This week in WISRD we are continuing last week’s developments. I am meeting with program director Honor Dodd to discuss this years first board meeting. We have many pressing ideas needing to be discussed so I hope this meeting is successful.

8/27/21

With the return of the school year I am back in WISRD and as the director. I got a lot of work left to do in the year ahead. The plans for this year is to be a successful director, work on RECON publication, and. the overarching goal is to construct the observatory.

5/18/21

Howdy y’all! As the school year comes close to an end my work in WISRD does not cease. This week I’ll be busy with schoolwork so I will have minimal time to do much extracurricular WISRD activities but, the RECON team is still analyzing the data from Patroclus. Even bigger news, I ran unopposed for the director position and am the 1st unanimous director. Congratulations to Honor Dodd for acquiring the project manager position.

5/11/21

This Sunday’s event went swimmingly. Very successful with occultation observed live. We will continue work on the observatory and analyzing this occultation. I have recently came up with a possible new theory on the workings of the universe explaing away dark matters major roll in modern physics. I will bring more details as I flesh out this theory but it could be a good idea.

5/6/21

Exciting weekend coming up! RECON has partnered with NASA’s Lucy mission to observe some occultation of Patroclus. This will help Lucy on its Trojan Transferring journey as we gain more information on the objects it will be going to. This is big for RECON as having partner like NASA is always important.

4/29/21

A busy week so far! The poster presentation occurred on Monday and I felt I best represented RECON. The presentation as a whole went extremely sans some lackluster posters. This was discussed on Wednesday’s Board Retreat which was also extremely productive. We added 5 new members to the board and got lots of other bureaucratic work done. It is sad to see the senior board leave but soon I’ll be there to replace.

4/20/21

For this week I’m really just going to be working on the poster for the upcoming poster presentation. Thats about it.

4/13/21

Back from spring break! Always excited to get involved with WISRD work again. Lots of scienctific breakthrough have been published as of spring break so its time for WISRD to add to that. This week my agenda is really around prepping for podcast with seniors. Working on observatory designs and helping on the board.

3/16/21

Joe has acquired land out in Big Bear. This is very exciting as we will finally be able to build our observatory. This will mainly be my final project for next year but nonetheless I’m hyped. Our RECOn team has an event tonight at 10:40 so that is also great.

3/9/21

Been working on PyMovie and the new occultation software very exciting. Joe has recently made me aware of some property we have acquired in Big Bear which we plan to install an observatory at. This most likely will be what I spend most of next year implementing. I have also spent time writing an article and editing said article on the origins of the Solar System. Overall great work is going on!

2/22/21

Working on installation of PyMovie an occultation analysis software. Should be neat. Shout out to the Perseverance rover for landing.

2/11/21

Finished writing the rough draft of my journal article. Very cool! Going to continue the grind of my work. RECON is in an inactive state currently so little work is being done there. Podcast Ep. 3 is in the works, the group we are interviewing is still not available but that is ok.

2/2/21

Happy Groundhog Day ! Today I am working on my Inquirer article, it is going amazing!

1/19/21

This week. I’m going to try to work on the 3rd Podcast and will work on my Inquirer article.

1/14/21

Ight so the RECON event is tonight. I also have started working on this years inquirer article.

1/12/21

This week I have another RECON event happening Thursday night. Other than that it has been a pretty easy couple of weeks in WISRD.

1/5/21

Hey yall! I’m back from winter break and I’m returning with a vengeance. Previous to the break my colleagues and I planned out what we will do in the 2nd semester and we are ready to complete the task ahead of us. We have some RECON events and other task coming up.

12/15/20

So we have reached the final week of the semester but the semster doesn’t mark an end to my work in WISRD. On the 21st of December Jupiter and Saturn will look very close together relative to our perspective here on Earth. This is exciting astronomical news! For my work this week and in the future I will be very busy. This week I’m going to be working on revising my CV and transfering the Youtube videos from my personal channel to the new WISRD youtube. I also have 2 RECON events within the next 3 weeks one on the 22nd and the other on the 8th.

12/8/20

I’ve completed my CV and am now preparing for future RECON events.

12/1/20

This week I have to work on my CV mainly. Nothing else to updated but stay posted.

11/17/20

I am currently working on my CV (Curriculum Vitae), this is relatively boring but none the less very important. Other then that this week seems like it’s gonna ok.

11/11/20

Sooooooo… We had a very successful fall poster presentation but there was a very prolific and inappropriate zoom bomber. Which has made the feeling amongst WISRD team very stale and miserable. I feel that we need to rejuvenate our team.

11/6/20

I have completed the RECON poster for Monday’s poster presentation which is pretty great. Spent the rest of the week trying to fix the WISRD Youtube channel but it is a very complicated istuation.

11/3/20

Sorry I haven’t updated my page recently I have been very busy. I have completed the rap! This is immensely satisfying and it is very well made. I have also participated in special RECON events which most likely was successful. We also have begun development of the WISRD poster.

Here is the link to the rap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kzaBY9qCTo&ab_channel=IanNorfolk

10/15/20

I have started pre-production on the filming of the music video to go with the rap. In RECON we have an event coming up so we are doing a rehearsal on Monday morning 4 am.

10/13/20

The rap is going amazing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6ZBQ9vhq7g&ab_channel=IanNorfolk

10/06/20

I finished the rap, it is amazing! I have a board meeting today where I will go over the rap very exciting, I intend to record some of the verses this weekend with Maxum and Reid. Joe has also informed me that we got the new camera coming in which is majorly exciting! Crisper images, higher quality picture, wider FOV, what more could I ask for! The big ticket upgrade is the reduction of hot pixels! Overall seems its gonna a great week in WISRD!

9/29/20

RECON finally published the findings on the binary system Wildwood Observed, I am a contributed on this one as our station directly observed it. Here is a link to the publication: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200928152857.htm

9/25/20

Reid and I presented the “Back to School Night” presentation yesterday. It was wildly successful. Good job on Reid’s end. The rap is going swell I am almost done with the next verse, which is on hydroponics.

9/21/20

Update, still working on the rap, got a board meeting on Tuesday. I also am starting my WISRD internship this week!

9/18/20

Guys, I have the 1st verse done for the rap. I am immensely excited and it is going beyond great. I have also orchestrated me interning for WISRD which will give me more opportunity to work in WISRD which is amazing! I also finished the podcast which you can find on the podcast project page. Overall I’ve had a very productive week.

9/11/20

Hey yall! I am stoked to announce that we have recorded the 2nd episode of the WISRD podcast with the Hydroponics lab including Ximena and Sadie. I a. currently editing said podcast and you should expect to see it up some time next week. Other than that we have been working on the rap and my collaborator and producer Yuji has sent me some high quality samples to mix with.

9/08/20

Guys, I have big news with a little bit of a sad reasoning behind it. Dark Matter Day which is WISRD’s event to demonstrate “spooky” halloween science to little kids has sadly been cancelled :(. But in the light of this cancellation the board and I decided upon making a video for the tots to enjoy, but Joe outright suggested making a RAP SONG. So as I have previous experience making rap songs I was suggest to create the rap which I gladly took on. Now I am partnered with non-WISRD member but esteemed beat producer Yuji Wexler and I am beginning the early stages of writing while Yuji is working on a draft of the record.

9/04/20

Update on my work. This week I have been starting to get involves with the Occult Watcher program which is a international and global team of telescopes which observe occults of asteroids. Currently I am registering the WISRD telescope to their system and am beginning the preparatory phase for the next occult season which starts in October. I am also preparing for my WISRD Inquirer journal entry about the origin of the solar system.

9/01/20

2nd week in and I’m feeling great! Since I am a Junior this year I have to craft a journal paper for the winter publication of The Inquirer. Currently I am pondering what i should write about. Possibly topics include: comets, asteroids, the origin of the Solar System, and basically anything to do with space. I am mainly partial to writing about comets or the origins of the Solar System as I already know alot about them and I am genuinely interested in those topics.

8/26/20

1st week back! Boy am I glad to be back in WISRD and I got big plans for this year. One me and Reid are gonna try and continue on the DWAN ROC initiative which we started last year. We are also gonna begin design and hopefully construction on the observatory system for our telescope. I have recently been informed that the West Side tower next door from WISRD would allow us to place the observatory on there roof for a fee but a local USC building is offering space free of charge. Overall big plans for this year and I’m stoked!

4/29/20

On Monday night WISRD hosted the first online poster presentation. It was overall an awesome success. Notes on the presentation include: Why did Dani cold call me?, Me and Reid clearly had one of the best presenation for the RECON group, the main presenter was very good, one of the best yet. In conclusion pretty rad.

 4/22/20

Hey yall, I have recently attended the board retreat and was not voted in as director. I am hoppinh that I can get another position like director of PR or something. On the Zoom agenda Reid and I have made major progress in projects like RECON.

3/12/20

This week we have so far been working on the ROC-DWANE project and have put the standard button control back online. If we are not quarantined in the coming week we intend on figuring out how to do coordinate slew’s with the system.

2/28/20

On Monday me and Dani recorded the 1st official episode of the WISRD podcast. I am currently editing the episode but it should be and out and ready for your enjoyment sometime in the next month so be on the look out for that.

2/11/20

Today I have continued research on the future of an autonomous RECON system. I have also completed the preparations towards the event on Monday (11/17/20) night.

2/03/20

Me and Reid have gotten to the prep phases for advancing our RECON robotics initiative to be named.

1/27/20

The RECON group has started creating a research paper about RECON and urban astronomy. We are also preparing for an event on February 17th.

1/17/20

It’s Reid’s birthday. Happy birthday Reid.

1/10/20

Hoo wee, we have alot RECON coming up folks. I have been working with Reid Allenstein to help improve the team as well.

12/18/19

I am beginning the process of creating the thorough paper on the practice of Urban Astronomy.

12/12/19

Today I remodeled a Canon Lens adapter to the telescope. This is in hopes of creating a way to attach a camera to the telescope to take higher quality astrophotography photos.

12/6/19

Today I worked with the proto-robotics group and we did a scan of the RECON storage room (AKA Joe’s Office) and we worked on the robot system. It seems like a smart endeavor to expand the robotics aspect of WISRD.

12/5/19

We have recently been in a drought for RECON occultation events. This means I have little work on so I have been working on PR and reflection. I have been thinking about improving my skills in other regions. Mainly 3d printing and design.

11/14/19

I have been working very hard on keeping RECON on a steady path but I have grown interested in a robotics projects possible involving Misty

9/27/19

I am considering the termination of GAVRT as I am now the main worker of RECON but I still really want to make the robotics division.

9/6/19

Bruh!!!! We got a slow day today and I’m hella bored

.8/30/19

What’s up yall! It’s Ian back at the grind. I’m current;y working on a new podcast and a new PR video for WISRD. Science wise I am working on RECON but the next mission is extrodanairly close to the horizon that I don’t think it’ll work out.

5/6/19

I have no clue what I’m doing today. Maybe working on the robot project.

5/1/19

So in recent news, I attempted my 1st RECON event by myself and it went horribly. Mechanical and electrical failures occurred and my skill and knowledge were seriously lacking.

4/16/19

Today I was working on the posters.

4/8/19

I’m back from Spring break with poster making time.

3/18/19

Joe doesn’t think social media should be used to aple to the masses but rather get 10 people to read one thing about occultation.

2/28/19

Today I worked on GAVRT and finished preparations for the big boi conference.

1/30/19

I am currently working on preparations for the Boulder City RECOn meeting. I am consulting the ever wise, Ihsan on how to approach this task.

1/14/19

Happy late new year! In all seriousness, I have gotten some great opportunities in WISRD since the last post. Next year I will officially be the P.I. of the RECON project and to investigate me being P.I. Joe will be sending me to Boulder City for the RECON meeting.

12/19/18

Today we installed some L.E.D. lights to improve future productivity.

12/17/18

I am thinking about promoting a Christmas party for the WISRD group.

12/13/18

Today I controlled the GAVRT telescope and gathered some data. Interestingly the Nebula NGC-7278 increased almost .2 Mhz in just 20 minutes.

12/12/18

After a long delay, we have finally acquired the parts for the PCB we are building for Project PANOPTES. We have also been brainstorming possible futures for my position at the WISRD institution. Joe said I shouldn’t start a new project and try to enhance an existing one, but I kinda want to make a robot or do something that could help the institute’s overall media goals and have a scientific advantage to it.

11/12/18

Since my last post, I have achieved many tasks.  In RECON I have been to 2 events and the major one was an event on looking at a comet occulting a star. For PANOPTES we have finished waterproofing. We are still awaiting the electronic components of the robot. I am also working on  GAVRT to observe distant black holes and seemed to get a hang of the process of observing

10/17/18

Today the PANOPTES group has completed placing the aluminum for the weatherproofing and 3d printed a custom part.

9/13/18

Hello! I am now working on the SMAAC presentation with the PANOPTES group.

9/6/18

Today we are beginning the 2nd phase project PANOPTES. We need to edit the poster to add the Cal Tech logo and any sponsor and we need to begin writing the paper and gather data to plane in said paper. We also need to finish the bug and leaf cover and place all the electronics into the Camera and Computer box.

8/27/18

I have come up with quite an interesting experiment in my opinion. I have recently learned in class that that Alpha and Beta particles get attracted to magnetic fields. My experiment would involve a chunk of Uranium decaying the particles. These particles will then be manipulated by the magnets and sent into an alpha particle detector (which I recently learned you can make.) Then we can use the is data to maybe determine the percentage or type of Uranium the chunk is and learn more about particle decay.

Some designs for these could be a particle separator

Or a tube model

I’ll have to research which design is more efficient and cheaper.

8/22/18

Today I continue my venture to learn particle physics. The reason I’m doing this to understand and help Bob make his cosmic ray detectors. I must say it is very difficult to understand all the fundamental particles and interactions but, I am trying.

Bibliography:

The Particle Adventure. Berkeley Lab, www.particleadventure.org/quarks.html.