Hobbies
Overview
Outside of engineering, be it work related or for fun, I love to interact with all things space. From satellite image decoding to astrophotography, I love every aspect of it. I am also a beekeeper and currently own 3 beehives at home. I also love the outdoors and have been camping and fishing for the past few years in Colorado with my brother.
Astrophotography
One of my favorite hobbies is photography and specifically astrophotography. I love imaging nebula and planets through an 8" 2000mm telescope and a 200mm lens. I have been able to capture many images of objects such as M16, M31, M42, the outer planets including mars and Venus, and many other interesting objects through a very simple setup and an old camera. I began this hobby with just a Nikon D50 and a tripod taking photos of M42. I now have only a D7100 and a mid-grade tracking mount and have been able to take jaw dropping photos of all kinds of astronomical objects. I hope to take better images of the ISS (as mine now are not so great) as well as incorporate my Orbital Dynamic's course work with orbit determination from observations to have more fun the next day when processing data.
Weather Satellite Image Retrieval
I created a custom v-dipole antenna from copper and aluminum tuned to roughly 137 MHz to receive NOAA APT and METEOR M2 LRPT images from passing satellites. I also managed to decode ISS SSTV transmissions as it passed overhead for its anniversary. There were many points in which none of my software was working, but I was able to persevere and work through my technical problems and receive incredible images from satellites passing overhead. I successfully received, decoded, and automatically uploaded these images to a local website as they were received. I collected images from passing satellites and created an APT decoder in python to learn about how amplitude modulation and NOAA satellites package and send data. I learned about QPSK decoding and encoding in the process as well as the benefits and downsides to each method of communication.
Beekeeping
I have been a beekeeper for about 4 seasons now, going on 5. I started this with the intent to get fresh honey and pollinate our gardens at home, but I found that their role as a super organism is highly complex and fascinating to learn about. Their intricate behaviors and the deep understanding humans have of them has lured me in to keep learning more and more. I have since cared for and extracted tens of gallons of honey to give away and use, and have learn so much more about various aspects of the interconnected world they are apart of.