AstronomyJourney

I'm Alexander Mendoza, a senior at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley studying Physics and Astronomy, with the long-term goal of earning a Ph.D. in astrophysics.

I often like to think that my journey as an astronomer was propulsed by my parents. During my early childhood my family and I lived in Mexico. I remember being six years old and going to the flea market, there is where I fell in love with your typical child size amaeteur telescopes. I remember begging my parents for it and telling them I didn't care if it was PINK! my child self only cared about the telescope. Although we didn't have much at the time, till this day I am grateful of my parents for buying me the telescope and starting my journey. After all, 17 years later and I can still recall myself using that small pink telescope and looking at the moon. Now, 17 years later, my work spans transient astronomy, compact star systems, python pipelines, and hands-on observatory operations. I'm equally at home analyzing data, maintaining personal and university instruments, understanding computing, or photographing the South Texas sky.