AAS 233 // My Top-10 tips for new folks

With AAS 233 starting in just a couple days here in Seattle, here's a few tips for having a fun and successful week at your first astronomy conference.

What to wear? What should I bring? Which talks to go to?!  I remember having so many questions my first time... This will be my 12th winter AAS meeting (whoa!), so if you see me walking around w/ my camera - stop by and say hey!

 Be sure to SUBSCRIBE for more videos about AAS 233!

Coffee Time Video: Strange New Worlds

This week on the Astro Vlog I've published a fun chat with a fellow UW researcher and Star Trek fan, Michael Wong. His podcast "Strange New Worlds" explores the science depicted in Star Trek, and showcases his deeply respectable nerd cred.

We're talking about Star Trek, outreach/science communication, and our Top 3 Science-in-Star-Trek Moments

Check it out!

I discovered a mystery!

This week's Astro Vlog is a research update, where I share the results from my most recent paper (worked on during the Gaia DR2 Sprint this spring!). Most interestingly, we expected this paper to be a quick update to a previous paper I wrote after Gaia DR1. Instead, it has opened up a potentially exciting new area of research!

You never know when a plot you've made 1000 times before will surprise you - that's why you always make it with new data, and continue to examine it closely!!

What's in an astronomer's tech bag?

A traditional tech video that I've always enjoyed is the "what's in my bag?" series. It celebrates technology, travel, lifestyle, design... but also (for me) is a productivity motivator. These videos to me fall under the "work style" genre - showcasing how people spend their time, organize their lives & workflows, set up their work & creative spaces, and - yes - what they carry in their backpacks each day.

So here I am proud to present my take on this classic YouTube video form: What is in an astronomer's tech bag? 2018 ASTRO VLOG edition!



Honestly I don't carry that much stuff, and I rely on only a few computers/gadgets to do my work. Mark my words:

when it comes to productivity & creativity, less is more

Going LIVE (on Instagram)

Last week I did a 1-hour "IG Live" interview with @SpaceFactsWax, an Instagram space fan page run by Jonathan Wax. We talked about a wide range of things, from how I became an astronomer, to NASA's Kepler and TESS missions, to recommendations for scifi (Apollo 13 FTW!). This week's Astro Vlog features a couple highlights from that chat.



 To watch the full video, head over to Instagram!

How I got scooped...

Here's a short story about how I got scooped after I defended my PhD thesis. It's a lesson in why you should publish early/often - even before you "publish" your paper!

Video Short: My Favorite Star

Spoiler: it's GJ 1243. No surprise, since this is the flare star I spent over 2 years studying for my PhD thesis!!

13 Hours

I did the 1-day-wonder trip: down to CA and back on the same day. A bit brutal on the sleeping schedule, but a great way to pop in and visit friends and colleagues at NASA Ames!

I was hanging out with folks in the Kepler/K2 office, unknowingly during one (what appears to be) of the final weeks of regular operations for the K2 observing campaign. Of course, science from this amazing platform is going to continue to be produced for next decade, so it was a real treat to get to sit in on an operations phone-con to see how each campaign of K2 is scheduled!

Creativity in Music and Astronomy

My first video back from my August Hiatus, and we're talking with my brother-in-law, my "vlog-father", an accomplished musician and recording engineer/producer: David Miner.

We're talking about (as we often do IRL) creativity, mentorship, putting in "the work", and how the practices of creating music and science are often so similar.

One major takeaway from these types of cross-disciplinary chats for me is viewing astronomy as explicitly a creative subject, and approaching my workflow from a creative standpoint. That means the most important thing you can do each day is just create something, even if it's not very "creative".

Scenes & Voices from Cool Stars 20

Last week I was in Boston for the Cool Stars 20 meeting. Unlike the AAS meeting in January, I wasn't able to shoot a vlog episode each day - the meeting was just too busy and full of science!



I have two other Videos from this week. The first was the entire talk that I gave at the meeting, filmed on my own camera (I believe an official video of all talks will be posted later by the conference, which I'll link too of course). Check it out here:



The second is a "Coffee Time" video that will go live next week, where we discuss the Gender in Astronomy Talks project! Stay tuned for that...

Video: Top 5 Best & Worst things about astronomy

4 Minutes of my PhD

3 years ago today I defended my PhD.

To celebrate this milestone, here is the first 4 minutes of my PhD defense, where I tell a classical story of the Carrington Flare (aka Solar Storm) of 1859.



Of course, I posted about my defense on this blog in 2015, and you can find a full version of the talk here (but without the slide overlays). I'll try to update this video with the slide overlays and upload to YouTube someday...

Kepler takes a nap

Today we got an email saying that NASA's amazing Kepler telescope, which I have used as the backbone of my research since at least 2013, was put into a "nap mode". The concern is a dropping fuel level, which you can read about here. This is likely the beginning of the end for the observational portion of the mission - though the science impact will continue to grow for the next decade!

Here's a short video with some thoughts on this mission and how it has changed my life!

Supernova Hunting!

What is it like to use a real astronomical observatory? In this week's Astro Vlog episode I am observing on the Apache Point Observatory's 3.5 meter telescope. This is a smaller telescope now'a'days, and its bigger than a house!

This facility also uses a remote observing technology, where through the magic of the internet I can control the telescope from my laptop in my pajamas. Tonight I'm using the telescope to follow up on supernova candidates found from the Zwicky Transient Facility... check it out!

The "Curve of Knowledge"

As a student I was worried that I wouldn't be able to come up with new ideas, or discover the Next Cool Thing!... I think a lot of people worry about that.

Honestly: I still worry that I don't have another "amazing" idea in me...


To help ease that fear as a PhD student, I jotted down a concept I called the "Curve of Knowledge". It works like this:

1. Come up with new ideas or notions for projects as they occur to you naturally
2. Spend a little time vetting the idea, making sure it's not obviously flawed
3. Look through the literature, assuming somebody already had this idea decades ago
4. When you inevitably find that the idea has been done, see what the date on the paper says.

As you practice coming up with ideas and growing in your domain knowledge, you'll notice in Step 4 that this offset shrinks. You'll start naturally coming up with ideas that have only recently been executed, maybe even being only a few weeks old! e.g. I've had new project ideas develop when Kepler data is released, only to have somebody else publish the paper a month later, before I can execute it

You could negatively view that outcome as being "scooped"... but instead I saw (and still see) it as an indicator that I have arrived at the cutting edge!

You also will notice that Step 1 becomes easier as you go. Ideas will more naturally come up as you gain experience. Creativity and idea generation are skills that you can practice and improve upon! Especially in science, you can practice them in a principled manner and get quantitively better at creativity!

Bonus: Old but not New, Forgotten Ideas

One thing I didn't mention in the video: sometimes when you're doing literature searches on projects you'll find that this idea was first outlined or speculated about 60 years ago, but the data/technology didn't exist then to execute it, and nobody has written about it since! If this occurs, proceed with the idea immediately! I have repeatedly come to the conclusion that I have no truly original ideas, but am satisfied with having ideas that have been forgotten by the community or haven't been considered for a couple generations.

You get triple bonus points from me if your original ideas cite 50-, 60-, even 70-year old papers that pseudo-scooped you, but nothing from 0-20 years ago!

Vlog: Gaia DR2 was released!! Mind = Blown!

The big data release from Gaia was a couple weeks ago! This is "Data Release 2", containing over a BILLION stars, with precise distances and motions. Amazing. Ever since then I have been racing to write a new paper, and have ideas for new projects to chase and grants to write! Exciting times!

Here is a short travel vlog from the day Gaia DR2 was released:

36 Hours in Pasadena

This spring I've had an overwhelming travel schedule: this month I've gone on a trip every week. I normally limit my travel to about 1 trip per month, but this spring has been a confluence of rare opportunities, warm invitations, and long-held plans. One more trip to CA this week coming up, and then after a few weeks break I have a final trip to AZ... and then 2 months of being home!

Besides the TESS launch in FL, I have recently been to CA and AZ to visit astronomy departments and give talks.  Each of these trips has been excellent, I am happy to report... but they are exhausting! You spend all day talking with people for 30-45 minutes, each time trying to find the overlap between each other's research/interests. When you talk with folks you know (such as old friends), you often only get an hour or two to catch up, maybe a meal if you're lucky!

I'm not complaining, I love to travel! These visits are a key part of doing science. You need to talk with people, spread ideas, get info on upcoming projects... This is also yet another reason why academia is not a equitable work environment. You need money to travel, as well as time, family flexibility, health... I am fortunate that my family and job have afforded me this season of jet-setting to finish up my NSF postdoctoral fellowship to help boost my networking & collaborations, and set me (I hope) on the right foot for my upcoming appointment as a Research Scientist at the DIRAC Institute (UW)!

This week's vlog: highlights from my recent visit to Caltech

Not shown (unfortunately) was a fantastic burrito from the food truck on campus, which brought back a million good memories of living in San Diego...

We Have LIFTOFF!

After the scrubbed launch on Monday, my wife helped convince me to stay the extra two days in Florida to see the next attempt... and on Wednesday last week I was privileged to watch one of the most amazing things I've ever seen!

Check out this week's vlog for a personal look at TESS launching on a SpaceX Falcon 9:

Rocket Launch?

I've never had the chance to see a real rocket launch - until now! I was invited to come watch the launch of TESS, NASA's new exoplanet hunting mission. This is because I was the lead on one of the first "Guest Investigator" programs, which will do all the other science with TESS beyond finding neat planets. This mission will likely be the cornerstone of my research for the next several years!

So now I'm traveling to Florida to watch a telescope get launched in to space!! WOOO!

Alas, the launch was scrubbed on Monday, but is slated now for Wednesday. You can watch the launch live here!

Video: 11 months overdue...

I finally finished this paper draft I'm working on, the 2nd major paper in my NSF postdoc work... only 11 months behind when I'd hoped!

 Today I'm discussing project timelines, and Daniela and I go checkout some cool stuff on UW's campus. Enjoy Ep. 19 of my Astronomy Vlog! Be sure to subscribe for weekly updates!