This is me...standing in front of the Pleiades star cluster.
I am presently a 30-something, mother of a teenage boy, and a college graduate with a Masters of Science in Physics residing in Grand Forks, North Dakota. I chose to go into Physics because I wanted to get into Astrophysics (see Interests). I hope to go back to graduate school and complete a Ph.D. in Astrophysics, possibly from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities campus.
For the past couple of years my hobbies have had to be set aside, but now can get back into them again.Along the way I have developed other interesting hobbies. I got into High Powered Rocketry in about 2000, which is extremely exciting...especially with the big rockets that I've seen fly.
My other hobby is Astrophotography, I recently purchased a Meade ETX-80mm Goto refractor. Along with my Canon Digital Rebel XT and ToUcam II Pro web cam I'm hoping to develop this hobby more. I went to Turkey for the March 20, 2006 Total Solar Eclipse and more recently to Italy to for the March 3, 2007 Total Lunar Eclipse beginner skills a workout. I travel with Dr. Tim Young and Dr. Ron Marsh, here is the website (I did the Flash Intro ;-) and I'm looking forward to many more eclipse trips. Presently we are planning a trip to Xian located in the Shaanxi province in China to web cast the Total Solar Eclipse on August 1st 2008.
The picture of me above was taken by my adviser and good friend Tim Young, he has a talent...one of the first pictures of myself I really like. Tim was the person who got me and a bunch of other people into rocketry. When he moved to Grand Forks in 2000 to become the only Astrophysists in North Dakota he brought along with him his rocketry supply business Rocket Technologies. I would describe Tim as the kind of person everyone wants to be around. He has a way of making everyone around him feel good about themselves and he is just generally fun. He has been a great advisor by fostering my talents and introducing me to new ones. A big part of our research deals with computers, building them, maintaining them and computer programming.
Which brings to another interest and hobby, computers. I have always been good with computers, ever since computer class in high school. We learned programming on a Apple IIe Plus. I really got into computers with meeting my friend Ryan in college. He was a computer major, but I'm sure he could have taught his professors a lot. He is the kind of person who if he didn't have a certain cable or part...he made it. Well, so now I've built my home computer, I have put together a Beowulf cluster at school/work to help with my research, and help work on a remote robotic telescope TOAST(Transient Object Automated Search Telescope). More recent developing projects are another remote telecope located at Crookston, Minnesota called CRUST (CRookston-Und Search Telescope).
There are many other things I'd like to do, the biggest problem I have (as you might have guessed) is finding the time to do it all. When I do find time I like to do yoga and henna tattooing. I also like to go downhill skiing with my son, he snowboards. I also enjoy cross-country skiing, when the weather works out. Oh, and I love to cook, especially trying new recipes.
I only have gotten into yoga a few years ago when I met my friend Erik Swanson. He had moved to a small town near here, Crookston, Minnesota to work on the MICAH Project with the First Presbyterian church there. Incidently, I observed the last 30 minutes of the Venus Transit from MICAH June 8, 2004. I made up a poster for MICAH, here is the link. He has since moved back to his hometown in California and found a parish of his own. I must confess that I am not a religious person, but did help me find my spirituality again and has to been very open about my views on religion. Last year in November I travelled to California for the Advanced Imaging Conference and met up with Erik. This is the second time I've been to the San Fransisco area. The first time we explored the region to north of SF, Sonoma valley and Hwy 1 along the coast...Beautiful! This time I got to go south to Monteray...again Beautiful!! I am hoping to go again, California is intoxicating.
About my family...I was raised in an Air Force family. My older brother and I were born in different states. I have lived in Delaware, Okinawa-Japan, and Illinois before moving to North Dakota. My father retireed from the Air Force here and both my parents remain here and I like Grand Forks. It is slowly growing and is a perfect place to raise a family. My brother has also retireed from the Air Force and works as a network administrator in Illinois with his wife and beautiful stepdaughter.
