So, for this week I am at the American Astronomical Society (AAS): Solar Physics Division (SPD) annual conference. This year it is being held at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. I have to say, this campus is the absolute deadest I have ever seen at a college campus. It is summer and there arn’t any students here so that could explain some of it, but I just dont see the possiblity of life here even when there are students.

Anyway, the meeting has been interesting and beneficial so far. First, and most important for me, I have a poster on display. This poster is the summery of my research over the past two years, so far. The final summary will be the paper that I write starting next week. It has been up since Monday and I’ve spoken to a few people about it. More on that later though.

We got in late Sunday after a long flight and had a long drive from Logan airport to get to Durham. Along the way, we did stop at Friendly’s though, which frankly, is one of my favorite places to eat. All you people out in the midwest have absolutely no idea what you are missing. The room I’m in is actually on campus, which makes it difficult to get out and socialize as there is nowhere near by to socialize with.

Festivities started Monday with some interesting talks and getting my poster set up. After a day of talks and explaining my poster, I was quite tired. For dinner, we drove to a place called Ogunquit, Maine to go to a restaurant that Alex knew from his PhD days at UNH. While it was expensive, the meal was quite delicious and we had a wonderful view of the harbour. I had never actually had a whole lobster before. Picking it was similar to picking a crab, but it was less work. It also was definitely missing the delicious taste of Old Bay Seasoning ™. Mmmmm.. I’ve got Old Bay in my blood. The drive up there was gorgeous though, I’m starting to think that I’ve been living in the wrong places, with regards to nice views and wonderful landscapes, though, SW Virginia is quite beautiful as well. I could sooo go back there. Anyway…

Tuesday was another day of more talks, but I also had a very productive discussion about my project with Valentyna Abramenko, a researcher at Big Bear Solar Observatory, whose research my work parallels in many ways. I learned alot from talking with her and she seemed very interested in seeing my final results when I get them out. I am very pleased by this, it is nice when other people are interested in what you are doing.

After that discussion, I took a side trip down to Warwick, Rhode Island (just south of Providence) to see a family friend. Charlotte is a friend of my mom’s from when she was working on her PhD (seems to run in the family..). I had a wonderful dinner with Charlotte and her family, and got to see her dog, Penny, a dachsund that I had met when she was a puppy. It had been quite some time since I had seen Charlotte, so it was quite nice to see everyone. I think they were surprised by how much older I am though, I’m still getting used to seeing people that knew me when I was but a few feet tall. I also had my new camera delivered to Charlotte’s, so I am with camera again, yayy! This means more new pictures when I get back to Ireland. Also, I had some prints of my photos so far made, they turned out really really well. I was very very pleased.

Today, we’ll be going somewhere else for dinner, and hopefully I can get a haircut and make a trip to walmart (need zone bars, they dont have those in Ireland), perhaps in the morning. I’ll be interested in the talks in the afternoon so I want to be around for those.

New pictures will come soon, as soon as I get some good light! (i promise)

Home again home again. I finally finished my poster and have been working real hard so not much has happened, really. The other night I saw X-Men 3, which wasnt so bad. It could have been better, but also could have been worse.

The conference is in Durham, NH at the University of New Hamsphire. I’ve never been to NH before, so we’ll see what it is like. Also, even more significantly, I’m getting my new camera body when I’m up there. So this set of photos will hopefully be the last of the near month old photos that I post. I should get some new ones. Though I’d have rather kept my old camera, having none for a few weeks was a welcome change as I got to go out and have some fun, fun that I can’t garuntee I would have had if I had it.

Also, now that the conference is on and the poster is over, I’ll be posting more. After the conference, I’ll be gallavanting around Boston for a few days, which also should be good, and some good photo oppourtunities should come from it as well.

I’ll keep updated about the conference over the next week. For now, here are a couple of pictures, both taken from the north side of Dublin, with the Howth penninsula off in the distance. Sorry for the delay!

I’m busy getting my poster ready for the conference in a week and a half, so I won’t be posting much. Its basically work, think, work for a while now.