<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=2 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>[Jeremy]: Tom, we all know you are an astronomer and work at the Naval Observatory but I have no conception of what your current daily activities consist of. Could you tell us what a typical day for you is, what you are currently working on etc. Do you get very much actual telescope time?<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>
I last worked at the U.S. Naval Observatory 20 years ago, from 1963-1983. See my resume on this web site to see where else I have been: [url]
metaresearch.org/home/about%20meta%20research/vanflandern.asp
[/url]
I am now in astronomy research at Meta Research full time. This currently involves very little observing, except for special events such as eclipses and meteor storms, for which we run expeditions.
Perhaps the most important part of each day is time spent reading the journals for relevant new findings and to keep up-to-date on many fronts. This feeds directly into our EME Notes, available to Members by subscription.
I now get so much email that much time is spent daily scanning it to see who must get a reply, who gets a form acknowledgment, and who gets no response. I have very aggressive filters working, which auto-eliminate spam and list-directed emails. I also check this Message Board and scan a few selected USENET newsgroups daily, maintaining a few correspondences in each place.
I spend part of each day confering with Meta Research Board of Directors, other colleagues, and volunteers about scientific, technical, administrative, or financial matters. For example, even though Meta Research is non-profit, it must still file information returns that make an accounting to the IRS about how our contributed funds are spent.
Writing research articles, preparing presentations, and planning expeditions are also important activities. A couple of weeks each quarter are consumed in preparing and editing our Meta Research Bulletin.
The actual research is the most interesting part of my day for me. I find I must place it last because, if I did that first, nothing else might get done that day and I'd remain incommunicado with the rest of the world. On any given day, perhaps 8-12 research projects are open, and the one or ones that get attention are dictated by new findings or publication deadlines. For much of my career, new findings were frustrating because they rarely fit in. But since I (re-)discovered deductive methodology and the importance of controls against bias, as I wrote about in <i>Dark Matter...</i>, the models I now support work so well that most days consist of noting new findings that are supportive and fit right in. On the few occasions where something doesn't fit in, that is usually a sure indicator of something new and important to be learned. So I now look forward to the unexpected as well as developments that go as predicted. -|Tom|-
