End of Week 3
And once again it's Friday, and I've already been there for almost a month. I don't know where the time goes.
My week was pretty good. My major success in the lab was making my FPGA into an adder. Using a bank of eight switches I can add the number 1 through 8 together (up to 31), and the result is displayed in binary on five LED's. The next step is adding an analog-to-digital converter to learn how to read in "data". My new computer finally arrived today, but it currently has no operating system. That will have to wait until Monday.
Classes also began this week. My sub-mm course looks to be an overview of the major research areas and technology of sub-mm astronomy. This is a good thing to learn about because this wavelength range (in between radio and infrared) is just now being used. The big project at MPIfR right now is the APEX telescope, which is a 12-meter single dish antenna in the Atacama desert of Chile, and has only been operating for the last year or so. This is also the area that ALMA will eventually study.
My other course is Astrophysics of Miniquasars and is of interest to me because I spent a summer studing microquasar SS 433 in Socorro. Sadly both course are taught in English because there are several international students who don't know German.
Otherwise I've started to meet more of the grad students and post-docs. I'm still working on convincing the German students that they should speak German with me.
I also think I've found a place to live. It's a newly remodeled three bedroom apartment only a five minute walk from the institute. It's nice.
Time for afternoon coffee. Tschuess!
My week was pretty good. My major success in the lab was making my FPGA into an adder. Using a bank of eight switches I can add the number 1 through 8 together (up to 31), and the result is displayed in binary on five LED's. The next step is adding an analog-to-digital converter to learn how to read in "data". My new computer finally arrived today, but it currently has no operating system. That will have to wait until Monday.
Classes also began this week. My sub-mm course looks to be an overview of the major research areas and technology of sub-mm astronomy. This is a good thing to learn about because this wavelength range (in between radio and infrared) is just now being used. The big project at MPIfR right now is the APEX telescope, which is a 12-meter single dish antenna in the Atacama desert of Chile, and has only been operating for the last year or so. This is also the area that ALMA will eventually study.
My other course is Astrophysics of Miniquasars and is of interest to me because I spent a summer studing microquasar SS 433 in Socorro. Sadly both course are taught in English because there are several international students who don't know German.
Otherwise I've started to meet more of the grad students and post-docs. I'm still working on convincing the German students that they should speak German with me.
I also think I've found a place to live. It's a newly remodeled three bedroom apartment only a five minute walk from the institute. It's nice.
Time for afternoon coffee. Tschuess!
posted by laura s at 8:55 AM
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