Research

I am currently a member of the PEGA team at Georgia State University's Astronomy Department.  PEGA stands for 'Program in Extra-Galactic Astronomy'.  My work thus far has mainly concentrated on monitoring and analyzing the variability of blazars.  A blazar is a subclass of objects called AGN, or Active Galactic Nuclei.  As the name implies, AGN are thought to be the overly active centers of very distant galaxies.  As gas and matter fall into the super massive black holes of these galaxies, a tremendous amount of energy is released.  This causes these objects to be very bright, despite their extreme distances.  The act of accreting matter also causes these objects to change in brightness drastically over various timescales.  All in all, intense monitoring of these objects will lead to better understanding of the mechanics of the 'AGN engine' and a better understanding of how galaxies evolve over time.

I am also currently involved in the  'refurbishment' of one of the telescopes at Georgia State University's observatory at Hard Labor Creek State Park.  We have recently acquired a bunch of new equipment, including a new CCD camera, a temperature compensating focuser, a filter wheel, and an adaptive optics system.  With any luck, we will get all this equipment to work together and be able to produce real science results from our own observatory. 

Lots more to come.