Local Results from ISEF97

Photo of Alexander Wurden and his poster on "Calculating the Orbit of Comet Hale-Bopp, from Los Alamos, New Mexico. Alex had a lot of questions from Louisville school students.... several thousand over the course of two days of public viewing. After a solid day of judging, Alex won six awards at the ISEF97. Alex was a freshman at Los Alamos High School (School just got out for the summer, so now he is a sophomore), and came to the ISEF with two other Los Alamos High School students (Brian Olson in Computer Science, and Jason Lewis, an observer.)
Photo of Alex taking data on a cold winter morning. One of Alex's pictures of Comet Hale-Bopp, taken on March 9, 1997, 4:40AM, with a 135 mm f4 lens, and a 10-minute exposure on Kodak ASA 400 PPF film. Another view, using a 300 mm lens on the same date, at 5:00 AM. From these photos like these, starting back in Sept. 1996, he measured the position of the comet relative to the stars, and then with sets of three observations, was able to calculate the orbital parameters of the comet in the sky. Now the comet is almost gone from view in the Northern Hemisphere.
Other international competitors in the Earth and Space Sciences category. Another Hale-Bopp project, by Ethan Curbow, was from Georgia.
It wasn't all work at the science fair. Mammoth Caves was fun, the views spectacular. But the various roller coasters were awesome. Alex and some friends learned the hard way that stomach's aren't built to ride them eight times in a row, without a break!