Spring 2016 was the first semester that Professor Wes Watters taught ASTR 202, Hands-On Planetary Exploration, at Wellesley College. It was also my first semester back from a leave of absence. I had spent most of 2014 and all of 2015 at the University of Notre Dame, where I was engaged in physics research at their Nuclear Science Laboratory.
One sunny day, I was invited to sit at the picnic table outside Whitin Observatory and have lunch with Carol Gagosian and Professor Watters. I remember that he asked me how I would go about making a Geiger counter and launching it on a weather balloon. Having just spent nearly two years studying detectors and radiation, I gave him my thoughts about how to tackle the problem. Then, lunch came to an end. So did the conversation.
Professor Watters did not teach ASTR 202 in 2017. He next offered it in Spring 2018. I chatted with him about it at an Astronomy Department tea in Fall 2017. I told him I was thinking of enrolling in the class. He encouraged me. I remember that I told him my plans: I wanted to put a Geiger counter on a weather balloon.
Two years prior, during our chance lunchtime conversation, a seed had been planted in my mind. It had been slowly growing ever since. Now I hoped to make it blossom.
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