Our location will be The New Mexico Skies Observatory which boasts some of the clearest, best sky conditions in the world, and is surrounded by the Sacramento Mountains and White Sands National Monument. The powerful telescopes, computer hardware and software available at New Mexico Skies will enable us to photograph deep space phenomenon, determine how the data is gathered, manipulated and stored, and how our senses are stimulated by these images. With the assistance of visiting artists, we will use a variety of techniques including drawing, painting, journaling and photography, to explore our surroundings.At the end of the week we will consider how recording data impacts the experience itself. One's memory, journaling, data storage, computers and the mind create a vision of reality that we "see". We will be assisted in this endeavor by Vincent S. Fazio, director of Nassan Gobran School of Arts, Sedona Arts Center; Libby Caldwell, visiting artist, Northern Arizona University; Mike Rice, vice chancellor, University of Alaska (Ret.); and Ryan Hannahoe, Astronomical League, youth activities chair.
We went to Carl's Jr. for lunch where we had a big debate on the name of their burgers. We bought groceries, groceries, and groceries at a Super Walmart in Alamogordo, and only Jenna knew how much we would spend! The sky was cloudy our first night so we could not look at the stars. We use red flashlights to see outside at night. Red lights are a kind of joke; we couldn't see anything. The freshmen feared we wouldn't be able to spot the werewolves. And Jenna was afraid of the “killer” moose. Pulp Fiction was on twice. But we couldn't watch it once. Jack missed his flight and came at 11:30pm. We spent hours coming up with ways to freak Jack out when he would arrive in our room. Sadly Nathan forgot to unlock the door, so we had to get up to let him in, and it became impossible to jump out and startle him. We learned how to take warm and cool pixels out of digital photos and how buckets catch photons on a chessboard, unless there is a hole in the bucket. We also learned how to take color photos of the sky and stay awake very late. It rained this morning. Then we made journals. We used wheat-based glue. Our entire stay is being censored by the adults. Mr. Marshall had us write this journal entry for him. Written cooperatively by Charles, Jack, Justin, Lizzie, Annelise, Amanda, Jenna, Mr. Chopra, Mr. Marshall, Nathan and Katie. |
