Sometimes, I am in the middle of (or worse finishing up) a paper and already it's evident that this one is not being hit out of the ballpark. The idea was solid, maybe a bit of a fishing trip, some result came out, but nothing that would blow an audience away (challenge their thinking on a subject).
Still solid science though. I always wonder if I should have sensed this issue earlier and put the project on the backburner. Yet here I am, manuscript looking decent, plots done, in need of one more English polish and also...nothing spectacular.
What to do? Well finish it of course! Hiring by beancounter has never been more popular and the perfect candidate these days includes someone who publishes a lot...
And who knows, it might serve as an example to others.
Plus I think a good characteristic of a scientist is to report all his scientific results, not just the supersexy ones.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
They'll make an spectroscopist out of me yet
ESO deadline last week. As per usual, I had more ideas then I knew what to do with. Four proposals submitted as PI. All spectroscopy. Huh.
Interesting question posed by Adam Muzzin: is it even possible for a TAC to approve at this many proposals from the same person? I think so. None of them are particularly egregious regarding requested time. Still it may go against any group think grain. But I have enough faith in the members of the astronomical community to not succumb to that kind of reasoning.
Interesting question posed by Adam Muzzin: is it even possible for a TAC to approve at this many proposals from the same person? I think so. None of them are particularly egregious regarding requested time. Still it may go against any group think grain. But I have enough faith in the members of the astronomical community to not succumb to that kind of reasoning.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
end of the VIMOS pipeline
Resubmitted my paper on IFU observations with VIMOS on the VLT today. Finally.
VIMOS pipeline has some...interesting...documentation. I finally figured out what happened to my data. With the final steps in place, the IFU data nicely shows the extinction curves in my distant occulting pair. Earlier this week I submitted another paper IFU, this time already nicely reduced by the CALIFA team. Also with extinction curves. Occulting galaxies still rock.
They'll turn me into a spectroscopist yet. Now I just need a finer-sampling, wider FOV, longer spectral coverage IFU to do the remaining 2000 with...
VIMOS pipeline has some...interesting...documentation. I finally figured out what happened to my data. With the final steps in place, the IFU data nicely shows the extinction curves in my distant occulting pair. Earlier this week I submitted another paper IFU, this time already nicely reduced by the CALIFA team. Also with extinction curves. Occulting galaxies still rock.
They'll turn me into a spectroscopist yet. Now I just need a finer-sampling, wider FOV, longer spectral coverage IFU to do the remaining 2000 with...
Thursday, February 7, 2013
HST Porposelating Time
It's time to read the journals,
It's time to write the dope,
Let's go submit proposals
for the Hubble Telescope!
(Bum bum bum!)
It's time grab some graphics
It's time to pitch and hope
It's time to curse the ETC
of the Hubble Telescope
Why do we always come here?
I guess we'll never know
An orbit comes with moolah
and so the words must flow!
And now let's get things started
Why don't you get things started
It's time to get things started
On the most sensational inspirational celebrational Hubbletational
This is what we call the Hubble show!
hat-tip to Charles Danforth for giving the initial idea and first four lines in a Facebook post.
Yes. It is HST proposal writing time again. I am allowing myself only four (!) proposals. Co-authorship slots are infinite of course...
It's time to write the dope,
Let's go submit proposals
for the Hubble Telescope!
(Bum bum bum!)
It's time grab some graphics
It's time to pitch and hope
It's time to curse the ETC
of the Hubble Telescope
Why do we always come here?
I guess we'll never know
An orbit comes with moolah
and so the words must flow!
And now let's get things started
Why don't you get things started
It's time to get things started
On the most sensational inspirational celebrational Hubbletational
This is what we call the Hubble show!
hat-tip to Charles Danforth for giving the initial idea and first four lines in a Facebook post.
Yes. It is HST proposal writing time again. I am allowing myself only four (!) proposals. Co-authorship slots are infinite of course...
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
oh right new year's resolutions
I'll breeze right by the "At least sub-arcsec." because that joke is getting old. Hm realistic professional goals for 2013. Bottom line: do not be unemployed by the end of it.
The ESA contract runs out in 11 months so by December 1 2013, I better have something else lined up. Working on that.
In related news & resolutions:
1. publish more papers. Yes. Even more. I need to clear the current Hopper and get the NHEMESES survey papers (already growing to be a whopper...) out ASAP.
2. Do not stress about jobs. This seems contradictory but wigging out just takes time & energy which I don't have at the moment. For example: never check the rumors page.
3. Put in HST proposals and win some.
4. Organize Workshop (at ESA).
These seem reasonable and achievable goals. No running the marathon type resolutions but stuff I think I can do.
right. back to it.
The ESA contract runs out in 11 months so by December 1 2013, I better have something else lined up. Working on that.
In related news & resolutions:
1. publish more papers. Yes. Even more. I need to clear the current Hopper and get the NHEMESES survey papers (already growing to be a whopper...) out ASAP.
2. Do not stress about jobs. This seems contradictory but wigging out just takes time & energy which I don't have at the moment. For example: never check the rumors page.
3. Put in HST proposals and win some.
4. Organize Workshop (at ESA).
These seem reasonable and achievable goals. No running the marathon type resolutions but stuff I think I can do.
right. back to it.
Monday, December 31, 2012
2012 Recap
Another year gone. This one seemed to have flown by particularly fast (thanks to the arrival of Marten James Talles). Science results were not thin on the ground though. First paper from the NHEMESES survey (2012a), awarded more Herschel time for this survey, two nice results on dust lanes in edge-on galaxies (2012b and nearly submitted). 2012ab accepted in the same week that Marten arrived. That was a good week.
Oh and the final thesis paper was accepted by Astronomische Nachrichten. No more frankenpaper!
The HI Quantified Morphology series is ticking along nicely. One more accepted in 2012, one more submitted. There may be one more in the Hopper but that remains to be seen. A QM paper for the S4G is in the works too. For more HI results I'll have to wait for the WALLABY and WNSHS surveys.
LADUMA still ticking along. It's a "potje" project. Keep lumping coals on the fire under the kettle and some substantial time later, something good will come of it.
I got to go observing with the WHT on La Palma! Small occulting galaxies. The Occulting galaxy catalog by Bill Keel was finally published which makes follow-up much easier. IFU observations, Hubble proposals etc etc. That project is looking brighter.
Yes 2012 looked pretty good. And the Hopper for 2013 publications is pretty full. Hopefully this will all translate into an astro-job someplace.
Oh and the final thesis paper was accepted by Astronomische Nachrichten. No more frankenpaper!
The HI Quantified Morphology series is ticking along nicely. One more accepted in 2012, one more submitted. There may be one more in the Hopper but that remains to be seen. A QM paper for the S4G is in the works too. For more HI results I'll have to wait for the WALLABY and WNSHS surveys.
LADUMA still ticking along. It's a "potje" project. Keep lumping coals on the fire under the kettle and some substantial time later, something good will come of it.
I got to go observing with the WHT on La Palma! Small occulting galaxies. The Occulting galaxy catalog by Bill Keel was finally published which makes follow-up much easier. IFU observations, Hubble proposals etc etc. That project is looking brighter.
Yes 2012 looked pretty good. And the Hopper for 2013 publications is pretty full. Hopefully this will all translate into an astro-job someplace.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
La Palma Night 2
Last night started with a leisurely tutorial in ACAM use since it was so cloudy & all (could see Sirius...briefly...) and then it cleared up. Some. I started with the highest priority objects. Observing is mostly that. Strategize, plan, prioritize, accurately tell the telescope what to do.
In that way it reminds me of flight school. None of the particular tasks in the cockpit were that difficult. Each of them can be done easily. By a trained monkey. But you have to do *all* of them. In order. At the right time. Efficiently. And that is very much the case with observing as well.
Tonight is a good night. Clear, everything is working great (knock on wood) and I racked in the other Priority 1 objects (well most of them) in short order. Time to doubt my strategy. Should I expose longer? Are two filters enough? With three I can make RGB images. Always good...
And I messes up slightly, I queued a pair too early (meaning we observed it not when it was at its highest point in the sky but still climbing. Rectifying that now.
There is some high cloud coming in so I will slot my cirrus special: an extra exposure in each filter to make sure we get enough photons.
In the meantime, I have not been idle. The raw data from last night has been converted into B/W images (bias subtraction, flatfielding and stacking, nothing more fancy). It reacquainted me with IRAF and its quirks some...
In that way it reminds me of flight school. None of the particular tasks in the cockpit were that difficult. Each of them can be done easily. By a trained monkey. But you have to do *all* of them. In order. At the right time. Efficiently. And that is very much the case with observing as well.
Tonight is a good night. Clear, everything is working great (knock on wood) and I racked in the other Priority 1 objects (well most of them) in short order. Time to doubt my strategy. Should I expose longer? Are two filters enough? With three I can make RGB images. Always good...
And I messes up slightly, I queued a pair too early (meaning we observed it not when it was at its highest point in the sky but still climbing. Rectifying that now.
There is some high cloud coming in so I will slot my cirrus special: an extra exposure in each filter to make sure we get enough photons.
In the meantime, I have not been idle. The raw data from last night has been converted into B/W images (bias subtraction, flatfielding and stacking, nothing more fancy). It reacquainted me with IRAF and its quirks some...
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