Sky & Telescope - December 2019 - 84

FOCAL POINT by Bryan Wang

An Astral Epiphany

For this teenager, a visit to Lick Observatory kindled a fascination with the cosmos
and the community that studies it.

window of the van making its way up
the winding road to Mount Hamilton,
home of the iconic Lick Observatory.
Looking down, I could see the city lights
below, but as I glanced up, the view
graduated into an unadulterated panorama of the sky awash with stars.
That warm summer night, my love
for astronomy was awakened - my
intellectual self burned with curiosity,
my spiritual self felt awestruck. Crazy as
it sounds, that was the ﬁrst time in my
16 years that I'd really seen the night sky.
I've traveled a cosmic path ever since.
This eye-opening visit took place
after my sophomore year of high school,
when I had the good fortune to work
with researchers at the University of
California, Santa Cruz as a summer
intern. I'd applied to the Science Internship Program, which matches high
schoolers with research projects based
on their strengths and interests. I was
one of two interns assisting my mentor,
Clayton Strawn, a graduate student of
physics professor Joel Primack.
For the next ten weeks, we tackled
multiple projects simultaneously, but
our primary goal focused on developing
a software tool that can help astrophysicists study metals in the circumgalactic
medium (the diffuse, nearly invisible gas
that surrounds the disks of galaxies). In
principle, researchers can use our software, combined with absorption line
spectroscopy, to map the abundance of
ions across the circumgalactic medium.
During my internship, I soaked up
a lot of material not found in your
typical high school classroom, from the
importance of a Lyman-alpha forest to
how an adaptive mesh reﬁnement code
works! More importantly, I got a sense
of what it's like to be a working scientist, and I liked it - a lot.
84

D EC E M B E R 2 019 * SK Y & TELESCOPE

From my limited experience so
far, what I like most about scientiﬁc
research is tackling the unknown
alongside others who share a vision of
tangible ﬁndings and progress. I lived
by that mindset that summer. On the
round-trip bus commute to and from
campus, I dove into various astrophysics texts and tuned into astronomy
podcasts. I studied software packages
and Python libraries at home, devouring
papers relevant to my project. I walked
into the lab with questions and left
with new ones.
In January 2018, I got the chance
to present my work with fellow intern
Rishi Dange at the American Astronomical Society's 233rd meeting in Seattle,
Washington. It was thrilling to see our
humble contributions to research being
recognized. At the convention center,
I met astrophysicists and astronomers
of all backgrounds and interests. At

discussion panels and keynote speeches,
I grasped these scientists' deep commitment to learning, collaboration,
and discovery. When I discussed our
research with academics or engineers, I
felt that shared curiosity for the cosmos
and its unfathomable mysteries.
As I prepare to head off to college
next year, I'm not sure how astrophysics and astronomy will play out
in the grand scheme of my academic
aspirations. But that drive up to Lick
Observatory two summers ago certainly
triggered what has become a passionate
enchantment with the subject as well
as a strong attachment to the devoted
community behind it.
¢ BRYAN WANG is a senior at the
Harker School in San Jose, California.
Besides pursuing research in astrophysics, he runs the school's programming
club and a six-person jazz combo.

q A night drive up to Lick Observatory at age 16 opened entirely new vistas for the author.

UC REG EN TS / LICK OBSERVATORY (JON ATH A N CH A NG)

I PEERED THROUGH THE BACK

Sky & Telescope - December 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - December 2019