Certainly 2009 is beginning to wind down. In a week I will be heading to Idaho for Christmas. But, there’s lots to do before then!
The most pressing is certainly grading the last few labs for the 100-level Intro to Observing class. Final grades are due soon so I have 30 or so labs left to grade. 10 or so are the “Navigation by the Sun” lab, in which students use a sextant to determine the latitude and longitude of the lab area. If done carefully, it is possible to determine the position of the lab area to within a nautical mile. Generally though, the accuracy is such that students can only say they’re somewhere in the state of Virginia. Still though, not many people can say they’ve ever used a sextant!
Right after the New Year is the American Astronomical Society winter meeting in Washington, DC. I will be presenting a poster based on my MS thesis. Of course, the poster still needs to be made!
The last task that needs to be accomplished is the assignment of TA duties for the Spring semester. Fortunately, this doesn’t need to be done until the beginning of January. But given the complexity of dividing up the lab duties in an appropriate manner between ~10 TAs, it takes a bit of time (and iteration!).
So, that’s the list of glamorous things in the life of a grad student at the end of the semester.
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