Blog Post #2

This is Siril, the platform I use for stacking and processing my data before doing photometry. 

This is AstroImageJ, the platform I use for photometric measurements. 

The hardest thing I've encountered in the research process so far is the difficulty maintaining consistent work output. This is a combination of timing, motivation, and an unlikely like of supernovae in the sky. For the most part, I am on track, but I have had to shift my project slightly so that I can do photometry on open clusters. Specifically, M36 and M38, colloquially known as the Pinwheel and Starfish clusters respectively. I am now down with data collection as a whole, but getting the numerical numbers and analyzing it will take a long time more. What's going well is the actual process of collecting and analyzing data. The methods I've been using have been working smoothly. The only hiccup left lies in statistical analysis because I am unfamiliar with the different ways to go about it. I will begin to bring everything together soon and synthesis it into the presentation and paper that are due in April. The thing that I've learned the most in the process is that consistent work over time is difficult, but rewarding. I've grown in that way, although I still have far more growth ahead of me especially in relation to the mental health management that I have to learn as well.