Held Over Again for the Second Big Week

As you may or may not know I have been tagged as the Astronomy teacher for Whitesboro High School starting in the 2010 – 2011 school year.  This is a Sr level course that was added to fulfil the state’s requirements that all graduating students have four years of science.  In order to facilitate the teaching of this course (read that as “to give me some clue as to what I am doing) I applied to a workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation and held at the McDonald Observatory at (or near) Ft. Davis, TX.

This is the second year I have been accepted into a workshop at McDonald Observatory.  I received a scholarship from NASA last summer to attend a workshop on interpreting Infra-red data sent back from the Chandra IR Space Telescope.  The amount of material provided was amazing, not to mention a bit overwhelming for such a short period of time.  I learned a great deal about interpreting images, CCD chips, and astronomy in general, and wished to continue the trend.

This year I was placed on a waiting list to attend the workshop of my choice.  Apparently LOTS of teachers in Texas found themselves in the same boat as I and were desperate to get any help they could in finding material for new astronomy classes.  I was finally accepted into a workshop but it was not the one I had intended.  Needless to say I did not turn down the invitation and trundled off to west Texas intent upon enjoying myself and learning a great deal about the search for Exo-planets (planets outside our solar system) and how we find them. 

THe seminar was excellent.  I learned a great deal and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.  On Wednesday the seminar ended and I prepared to go with and absorb all that I had gathered when I was presented with a realy opportunity.  Someone had canceled from the workshop I initially wanted to attend and there was no time to find a replacement.  The money was already committed.  Would I consider staying another three days?  Hmmm let me ask my wife.  She says its OK so yes yes yes yes.  For those of you wondering where I am, well, I am here, in the mountains of west Texas, praying intently for clear skies and a place to do laundry.