Shayna B.

December 4: The last few weeks have been pretty chill. Chance and I spent a little time cutting some wire mesh pieces for a new Radio Telescope. We are hoping that making it out of wire and not tape will make it more weather proof. I’ve also been pushing people to film their video segments for the WISRD 10 year anniversary video I’ve been tasked to create. A big occultation is coming up in a few weeks, as is poster session.

October 29: Dark Matter Day went very well! I was in charge of the Liquid Nitrogen explosion, and it was a big hit! During the second explosion, I missed the cooler and had to re-do the explosion, but other than that it went very well. We are having trouble finding a time to look at the comet because Westside Towers is blocking our views. Megan sent and email to Westside Towers to see if we can go on their roof, but we have yet to hear back.

September 27: Today I am learning basic electronics. I had some difficulty with Voltage and Milliamps, but now I understand!

September 26: On the 17th, after back to school night, myself, Chance, and Greyson W went up to the deck and did astrophotography of the moon. It was a good learning experience, and we almost got a picture of a plane passing in front of the moon! It was nerve racking though, as we had issues setting up the telescopes. One of the legs retracted the first and second time we tried to put the telescope on top. In th eend, we got the telescope stable, but it was also tilted, which really stressed me out and wasn’t safe or correct at all. In the future we should double check the locks on the legs.

There may be a comet visible on October 12, which will hopefully be our next astrophotography date. In other news, NASA is writing a research paper which members of RECOn will be mentioned in! In fact, we offered to write for the paper, which means we will actually be co-authors on a NASA paper if they accept it! Pretty cool!

September 12, 2024: Last year in WISRD, and its off to a great start! I already have at least one younger student interested in RECON. RECON also has an occultation event planned for late December, so thats exciting! Between then and now, we are going to use a camera to take astrophotography photos with the telescope during the full moon in September, October, and November. I have also started work on a secret engineering project that will hopefully increase the volume of people using safety goggles. For this project I need a flexible conductive element to put on the nose bridge of a pair of safety goggles.

April 29, 2024: The telescope has been fixed! It slews in the right direction now. We went to UC Irvine and talked to a few people about superconductors. We hope that next year we will be able to start development. Poster session went well. I presented on Superconductors and Scientific illustration. We are meeting with Cora on Wednesday to start to build the prosthstetic.

March 13, 2024: We cant do the event in March because the telescope is having issues slewing to the right location. We had planned to set up and try to fix the problem, but a few unforeseen circumstances caused us the cancel. Myself and several other WISRD members are traveling to UC Irvine to attend a talk about neutrinos and to talk to Dr. Michael Smy about our superconductor project. We hope he can provide guidance and some much needed machinery for the project. I have also become involved with a dog prosthetic project. The dog, Cora, has no front legs, and we are working on creating a comfortable set of wheels that Cora can use to run and interact with other dogs.

January 29, 2024: The RECON group has gotten word that there will be an event in March! Yayyy! Finally! Tomorrow, Myself, Joe, Megan, Noam, and Ezri are going to go up on the deck and take out the telescope. As well as being for fun, this is going to test if our Telescope has a broken piece or not. This broken piece might be the reason we have been having issues slewing the telescope for the past few years.

January 3, 2024: Happy New Year! There has been little progress on the superconductor lab, since we still have not found a scientist willing or able to help us. RECON is still extremely quiet. We were only recently informed that RECON as a whole is on hiatus.

November 6, 2023: The Superconductor lab has only heard back from three people. Dr. Gould told us that his lab is, “No More.” Dr. Hofmann works at JPL and told us that he cant work with us because JPL is the government, but he is willing to come speak to us! Michael Smy told us that although he doesn’t know much about the topic, he is willing to help us anyway. Dark Matter Day went well overall, although the Superconductor lab had some issues with our station. When cooling down the superconductor, do NOT lower it into the liquid nitrogen. It can and WILL fall in. RECON has been very quiet this year.

September 15, 2023: The Superconductor lab has been approved! Now we are emailing a few colleges to ask if we can collaborate use their labs.

August 31, 2023: Myself, Noam, and Zach are working on a proposal for the a Superconductor lab. https://docs.google.com/document/d/18itSMhdL0txUjef3_LXZoJNsAzY5xqjIv8MU_CJa2EY/edit

August 23, 2023: Its the first day of Junior year, and i’m hoping to get the Radio Telescope up and running the way it was. I also hope to grow my understanding of the Radio Telescope group. I also want to find more members for RECON and the Radio Telescope group.

May 22, 2023: We’re back! The WISRD website is finally back up! Over the past few months, RECON has taken a few steps into expanding its capabilities. We hope to get started on some astrophotography in the coming year and also start up the spectroscopy that we intended to do this year. We have acquired adapters needed for astrophotography. I have also joined the Radio Astronomy group and taken over as PI, after the departure of the seniors running the group.

Journal entries imported from the previous iteration of wisrd.org:

January 3, 2023: I am currently working on updating the RECON telescope and analyzing the data from a previous occultation.

November 9, 2022: I have been writing the first draft of my article for the Inquirer. Along with Megan and Joe the RECON group participated in an occultation on October 27th.

September 6, 2022: There are currently no upcoming occultations, so i’ve been spending my time solidifying my understanding of Spectroscopy.

May 23, 2022: Lukas P. contributed to a past occultation and recently helped check on the telescope box.

May 11, 2022: I have officially become the PI for RECON. I recently spotted what looked like more mold on the telescope box again. The mold has since been cleaned off by myself and Bob.

April 26, 2022: The poster presentations went well. Recon was able to showcase the telescope and talk about spectroscopy. After the poster session, everyone went to the theater for a talk by Marc Buie about occultations. After the talk we cleaned up and went home.

April 25, 2022: The WISRD Spring Poster Presentations are tonight.

April 22, 2022: It rained very hard last night, but when we checked on the telescope this morning we found it completely dry. So the waterproofing can hold up to heavy rains. RECON also received an adapter so that we can use the spectroscopy lens.

April 12, 2022: Right now the RECON team is working on our poster for the Spring Poster Presentation. We checked on the telescope yesterday, and it was dry. So the waterproof paint worked.

March 23, 2022: After the mold was removed, RECON coated the telescope box in a layer of waterproof paint. I also finished and sent in the final draft of the article I was writing for the WISRD Inquirer.

March 9, 2022: Yesterday more bleach was applied to the moldy areas of the box. Maybe we should figure out a way to prevent mold in the future. I am currently working on my WISRD article final draft.

March 7, 2022: Last week mold was observed on the wooden box that contains the telescope. This week we brought out some bleach to clean off the mold.

Feb 23, 2022: RECON had an occultation last Monday, the 14th. We unfortunately did not get any data because the camera would not connect to the computer software. This problem has since been fixed.

Feb 9, 2022: Today we made a stand for the telescope GPS. We drilled a hole into a small piece of wood that we can slot the GPS into.

Feb 7, 2022: We attempted ASCOM software to work with the telescope. It didn’t work.

Jan 12, 2022: I was taught how to use the PyMovie software.

Jan 4, 2022: The JWST successfully launched on Christmas Day. I tried to stay up for the event, but unfortunately fell asleep.

Last week the RECON group went to the top of the school to attempt to view an occultation. Unfortunately it was too foggy to see anything. The experience was a good learning experience however. I had my progress report/Vitae discussion.

Nov 28, 2021: RECON is going to attend an occultation event on Wednesday.

Nov 16, 2021: I have been working on getting my Vitae up to speed. The RECON group found a place to store the telescope are trying to get a tarp to put over it.

Nov 9, 2021: Last night was the WISRD poster presentation. For about an hour guests were allowed to wander around and check out the WISRD projects. After everyone went to the theater to listen to talk from Dr Olivier Guyon. Overall I think the night went well. Next time I personally might prepare better so that I don’t stutter as much and know the material better.

Nov 8, 2021: Poster presentations are today, all the WISRD groups are preparing to give the presentations.

Nov 3, 2021: RECON has been working on creating posters about the Occultation Event to present on Monday the 8th. Specifically, we are practicing our presentations.

Oct 25 2021: Last week I went on a trip with my fellow RECON members to the desert north of Las Vegas to view an occultation. The first two nights/days were reserved for practice setting up and using the telescopes. The first night we stayed in a parking lot, but the second and third night we drove out to our line in the desert. The third night we hit a few bumps in the road and weren’t able to collect data, but I still learned a lot.

OK. So for the past 2-ish weeks i’ve been working on various slideshows. The Lucy Slideshow is done, and now i’m working on the JWST slideshow. When I need to write about something new that I don’t fully understand, I search up the information I need to understand the given topic better. This way I also know about things for the future.

Sep 22, 2021: I have been in WISRD for five-ish weeks. I joined RECON, and…..yes. Im still Learning about what Im doing since its so early in the year, but seems like things are going well.