Sunday, June 25, 2023
By:
Welcome to the end of crunch week (aka Week 4)!! This week was a little crazy but was super fun!
Starting with last Sunday, a couple of interns and I went to the Georgetown Flea Market and then to Good Stuff (a burger place). I spent a little bit too much time out in the heat and sun and got sunburnt. (Whoops!) However, the walk was quite beautiful. I also started my second D&D campaign of the summer with my physics friends from Valpo and that was a blast! I can't wait to see how the campaign turns out.
We had Monday off so the interns decided to hold a potluck! It was Italian themed and the food was delicious! MJ made some delicious garlic bread. Great job cooking everyone! Tuesday evening a group of us headed out to Tonic for some live jazz and dinner. I really enjoyed the live music. Wednesday was a relaxed work day and the highlight was definitely the turtle Hannah and I saw before getting on the bus to the Metro.
Thursday was an exciting day at the office since almost all of the interns were at ACP to have lunch and hear a talk from John Mather! He is a very sweet and humble scientist who has made great contributions to our knowlwedge through projects like COBE and JWST. The other interns were very helpful in bringing back demos for Astronomy on the Mall. We made an interesting crew on the Metro with our bags of stuff. That evening some of us watched Forbidden Planet whihc is John Mather's favortie space movie.
Friday was another relaxed work day but after work all the interns gathered in my room for Demo Show and Tell! All the interns who were able to go to Astronomy on the Mall needed to be trained on the demonstrations for the event. Everyone had fun playing with all the demos while I explained the physics behind our demos and how I wanted people to present them! After Demo Show and Tell, a group of us walked down to the National Mall and saw the monuments at night! It was very humid but the monuments were beautiful.
Saturday was the big day!! I arranged a late lunch/early dinner and then we headed out at 4:15 for Astronomy on the Mall! We all wore our SPS shirts and gathered all the demos so I am sure we looked a little crazy on the Metro heading over. Once we got there, we set up our tables and got ourselves organized. The only demo we weren't able to use was the bubbles because we got moved inside due to the possibility of rain. Honestly, once the people showed up it's a little bit of a blur. I spent most of my time at the Fabric of the Universe Demo chasing down marbles. This demo is a gravity well. Lots of museums have them to collect quarters in a fun way! Thank you to Gary White, Rachel Ives and her husband for providing real adult moral support!
Astronomy on the Mall was so fun to plan and was an amazing event to attend. I am super grateful to have had the opportunity to try my hand at planning an outreach event. Thank you to all the other interns for helping me with this event. It wouldn't have been possible without you! (Pro-tip: bring extra snacks and waters. You will want them.)
Till next week!
Emily Pavasars