So, this weekend, the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Science is having its annual conference in town. In addition to giving a poster presentation* as part of my work, and listening to talks and 'networking'**, the conference organizers organized some events.

One is an art exhibit of photographs taken by the Cassini spacecraft. They are even projecting pictures of Saturn on the side of the art museum on campus for a month.

The second is a concert of Holtz's The Planets and a new piece written by a local composer, inspired by Cassini's new pictures of Saturn. All of that is going to be played by the Cornell and Ithaca College Orchestras while movies of the planets are shown in the background, put together by the volunteer astronomers from my department. Matt (one of the postdocs in our group, and the one who did most of Saturn's AV show -- I helped a bit) wants to make a recording and put it on YouTube. If we do, I'll link to it.

One thing I love about my job is that it inspires both sides of my brain. To do my job I need to be able to do math and write (both left-brain things) and have good spatial senses (right brain), but I take a joy in artistic works that describe the things I learn.

ETA: And the very evening I write this, my friend and co-worker Ryan does a similar entry on his blog.

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* You ever do a science fair presentation? Think that. Except I've been working on this project for two friggen years, and I'll have to talk about it to Ph. D.s. And I get to use a giant printer to print a 30" by 40" Powerpoint slide as my poster -- none of this gluing things to a presentation board.

** In a year or two, I'll be on the job market for a postdoc. That means being able to say 'Hi, we met at DPS, I'm Rebecca who was working on X, Y, and Z'.