Right, what am I doing here anyway?

Briefly: I'm here in Puerto Rico working at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory which is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center. I'm being paid by the National Science Foundation through the REU program (Research Experience for Undergraduates). I'm helping Cornell professors Robert Minchin and Emmanuel Momjian look for galaxies in the "avoidance zone." The avoidance zone is the stuff that's on the other side of the Milky Way and that only radio telescopes can see because of all the gas and dust in our galaxy blocks the views of other telescopes. I'll be here for 10 weeks. There are about 10 other college stuents and one grad student in the REU program.