Year 3...in a nutshell

So I have finally completed my third year at Cardiff, but I still have one year to go as I am enrolled on an integrated masters (MPhys). I would definitely say that this year has been the hardest yet - especially when it came to balancing project work, modules and extra curricular activities like netball and being on committees.

Instead of boring anyone who reads this with tons of text, I am going to summarise this past year with pictures and teen bits of text (for when I don't have pictures).

The academic year kicked off around September, and as I was voted onto the Chaos committee, it was time to recruit some new members.

By October, it was time to visit the Peak District for the Peak Star Party 2014! This year, it was decided that I would give a short talk about "my journey" as it would give an insight to how I ended up studying Astrophysics. I think it was okay.

November arrived and by this point my third year project had really started to take off. I spent days aligning a spatial/spectral interferometer and it was starting to pay off. Without spending too much time worrying about Physics, a spatial /spectral interferometer allows me to indirectly image objects whilst gaining an understanding of their spectral composition i.e for a star, I could work out what elements it contained.

December and January were a write off due to Christmas and exams, and I don't really remember anything interesting happening until the Easter holidays in April - that is when I visited Amsterdam!

By this point in the year, I had helped organised the most successful Annual Physics Ball ever! It was held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in May.

Then exams happened again and removed the joy from life, but it was okay because Oxford University accepted my application for a summer internship...so goodbye Wales!

and hello Oxford!

I keep forgetting to blog...HELP

Once again, it's been many months since my last post. This is mainly because I have been really busy, but also because I do find it odd that people take the time to read this blog. Initially I just started it because someone suggested I should, and I never put much thought into what was being posted. 

Thanks to a lot of hard work, and a lot of luck, I have made it into my third year of Astrophysics. It's hard to believe that when I started this blog, I was completing my second year of A levels and never thought I could possibly get into a university as good as Cardiff. Now I am halfway through my degree, I have decided that it is probably a good time to start blogging more frequently. In the next two years, I have some tough decisions to make and blogging definitely helps. 

So goodbye for now, but I doubt it will be long before there is a new post.

ps, I am currently the Vice President of the Chaos Society at Cardiff.

What is quantum mechanics?

Well that was a fun exam. For the first time ever, I found all of the Maths straight forward, and struggled on basic definitions. Nightmare.

1 down, 2 to go!

That special time of year...

With what feels like day 5000/2647483 of revision, I am started to really lose interest in my modules. I just feel like I know most things - I probably know nothing - and they're no longer fun to learn about. By the 27th I'll be settling down into new modules, which sound rather difficult, and probably moaning about how hard the contents is.

Leaving A levels behind, I thought I'd finally got to where I wanted to be. University was the next big step to becoming a Physicist and it was really fun at first. Now I'm at the stage where it just feels like I'm constantly under pressure, learning a little about a lot just to pass an exam. I don't really feel like I know much about Physics, but I'm reasonably good at passing exams.

To say I haven't posted anything on  my blog in a while would be an understatement, but I don't feel like I have had anything remotely interesting to post about. Hopefully my second semester of my degree will be more exciting. 

At least someone enjoys revision.

Peak Star Party 2012

My prolonged period of absence, from this blog, is probably due to my insane workload (and lack of interesting things to say). As I tend to avoid doing work at the weekend, I can't really complain about my lack of free time in the week. However, I think I have a good enough excuse for not completing any homework the other weekend (which was several months ago...) - PSP2012!

That's right folks, after spending the majority of the last star party - without sensation in my toes - I decided to go back for more. I think it was one of my better choices, as I have had the best weekend. 

After two lectures and an exercise class, I was most certainly ready for a fun-filled weekend. Before this could occur, I had to somehow travel to Chelmorton in about six hours – which was almost impossible on public transport, but I managed it in less than seven.

Upon arrival, I was finally reunited with the lovely Angela. She then proceeded to give me a hard hat, for protection after last year’s unfortunate occurrence (see my previous blog post). Missing the welcome talks was unfortunate, but it was already rather dark (and cloudy) by 20:00; so putting up my tiny two man tent had to be prioritised.

Eventually I was greeted by the welcoming sight of sta...more clouds. It was a tad frustrating, as I had travelled for hours. Luckily enough, everyone was in a fantastic mood, so several hours of socialising commenced, which was then followed by a relatively (midnight) early night. 

At about 1am, one of my fellow campers started trying to wake me up, as the stars were coming out. That was it; I threw on around 8 layers, in the space of 3 minutes, and left my tent. The sight that I was greeted by was immense. Orion, Jupiter and Taurus were the only visible areas, but I was not disappointed. I have never seen the belts of Jupiter so clearly through my own telescope before, and it was simply wonderful.  Once I had woken up several neighbouring tents, and my database of about 10 easy-to-find objects was exhausted, I started doing my usual thing. For those of you who haven't witnessed my behaviour at a star party, I tend to just find the nearest gathering of people, and ask what they're looking at. This often leads to me being shown brilliant objects, and this year was no exception. 

One of my observing highlights, of that night, was probably M81 & M82. If you're rubbish with Messier catalogue numbers, like myself, then a more familiar name would be Bode's Galaxy and the Cigar Galaxy (I think). It was astounding to see such beautiful galaxies in the same field of view. Either those, or the Owl Cluster - which definitely looks more like E.T than an owl. I really can't decide, as I really did see a lot that night, including: the triplet in Auriga, the Crab Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, Caroline's Rose, the Double Cluster and so many more! I really am grateful for being shown such wonderful objects. 

Staying up until 4:20am was probably a bad idea, but it was difficult to drag myself away from the night sky. 

Apparently this is as far as I got with my blog post - which is embarrassing as Peak Star Party 2013 has already passed, and I am now looking forward to PSP14.

Some surprising news

It's that time of year again - exam results day. After obtaining an average of about 74% for my first semester, I didn't really expect to be able to improve on that. I was pleasantly surprised:

Electricity, Magnetism and Waves (20 credits) - 82%

Mathematical Methods for Physicists 2 (10 credits) - 80%

Computational Methods for Problem Solving - 89%

Planets and Exoplanets - 86%

Experimental Physics 2 - 76%

I don't really know what to make of them, but they do bring my average up to 78.3%.

When I managed to get into Cardiff University, I really didn't ever see myself getting above a 2:1, and I doubt anyone else did because my A level results were pretty average for a Physics course. I was genuinely worried about not being able to stay on the Masters course (55% average and above). I suppose it just shows what is possible when you set your mind to it.

APOD never fails to amaze me.

Mid-exam update

1 exam down, and 2 more to go. In all fairness, I have had a really easy exam period, as my exams are so spread out. One major disadvantage to this is the fact most people will finish before me, and will even torture me with social invitations, or just keep me awake all night. That is my main concern, as an average night in the ghetto is noisy enough, never mind after the majority of its occupants have finished their exams. I will call security if it gets too noisy, I really couldn't care less if it ruins anyones night - be considerate. 

In other news, it's my parents 17th wedding anniversary today. I believe my poor Mother is being dragged camping, as my Father enjoys fishing. It's just fantastic that they're still together, as divorce appears to be so common these days. My sister has also finished school - which is terrifying. She's still got at least 12 exams left, but she no longer has any lessons. She is going to pursue A levels in Chemistry, Biology, Maths and IT from September. 

One weird update is that I decided to e-mail my primary school head teacher. It's well known that she is retiring from August, therefore I wanted to just say hello before she did. I genuinely received such a lovely response, and it's nice to know that she remembers me. Which isn't too hard, considering my name is on the big trophy that is in the school somewhere. I can't actually remember what I received the trophy for, but I remember that it was the big award every year, and that it was something I had wished for since year 1. 

I have a CUROP update also - I didn't get the placement. I am rather lucky though, as I think that I was the only first year to get an interview this year. I have always had a back up plan, and I think that it's actually going to work out. I will be spending my summer in the academic environment that I wanted to, and I will be making some money. 

I think this summer has the potential to be one of the best ever. 

I was cute a very long time ago.