Interim report.

I woke up this morning, and thought, "I wonder if I can just go home?" mostly because I'm tired of Socorro, and feeling homesick, and missing everybody.

So then, I thought, "How would I know if I could do that?" and then I thought, "Wait, didn't I write a list of goals somewhere?" So I looked back through my posts, and there, on the very first post, was a list. I think I need an interim report on where I am, so I can answer the above question.

"a) The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)... I'm off to Socorro to make myself useful to them. I'll definitely be doing some documentation. I'll definitely be doing some software testing. I'll definitely be doing some radio astronomy..."

I have done some documentation, I have done some software testing. In fact, I did an entire audit of the entire software package that is necessary to handle the ~1,000-fold increase in data complexity that comes with the EVLA. I helped the group figure out where they are (pretty much on time), and then I helped them make a plan. And then I went in and figured out some specifics of specific packages. At the moment, I am the most expert user of the package anywhere. So that's fun. I also did some radio astronomy. I took some data and got a surprising result. I have new collaborators, and I've worked with them to analyze some data they took years ago, and never got around to analyzing. I have a meeting with them on Thursday to talk about it.

Remaining: to write these things up for publication. Arg. There are at least three papers here to be written. I have discovered that I hate that part. Not so much the writing, but the dealing with referee's comments. I have realized that this is because I have never published two papers on the same thing. That means that when referee's comments come back (typically after six months or a year!), I've completely forgotten how to do the analysis, so I fundamentally have to start over, instead of just polish up. I think I'll stick to radio astronomy for a while, and see if I can get my pub. rate up by at least sticking to the same software for a while. ; )

I also need to check with Gustaaf, and find out what else he needs me to get done on the software project before I go.

b) ... the Physics Department has an environment course on the books that hasn't been taught... ever, as far as anyone can tell. Won't it be fun to create such a course and teach it in the fall of 2009, when I'm back from sabbatical? ...to read all about it, and invent fun classroom activities that make the physics of global warming real to my students.

I've created an outline, chosen a book, and done a lot of reading. I've lined up at least one guest speaker, and am working on a couple of field trips. I've put some thought into classroom activities, but have not actually written them up in any sort of detail. I got derailed for a while by discussions that were going on at home about whether I'd teach the class, and then got derailed again by the slumping economy, and wondering whether I'd actually get to teach the class.
Remaining: some classroom activities, a syllabus and a more detailed outline.

c) We've all of us been doing an enormous amount of work lately, that remains completely undocumented. Science in the Parks. The K-8 core. Studies of learning in the planetarium environment. ... and I really should finish that paper that Mike and I worked on.
Remaining: all of this. Sigh. No, wait. I did a draft of the Science in the Parks article for Mercury. I wonder what I did with that?

d) Soon, the planetarium is going to need to be updated again. 'Maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but someday...' This is a 1 M$ project, probably. Guess I'd better write some grants. grumble, grumble.
Remaining: all of this. Sigh. And no sign of improvements in staff support anywhere. I really need to think about whether this is even possible without better staff support.

e) I need to find that place in my head where the ideas just come swimming up, rising like bubbles through my mind, and bursting open with a sweet scent and a flash of light that makes it seem like anything is possible.
f) So by the time I come back, I want to feel like I've got the intestinal fortitude to make all those possibilities into realities.
Remaining: Keep at it. But morale is really bad here, and I'm not sure these are going to happen in this locale!

g) If I don't need brain surgery, then there are a number of secret things that I want to see if I can do: a sprint triathlon before I'm 40;
Remaining: Don't need brain surgery! I forgot about that! Boy, that'll cheer a person up, I tell you what. But I've not done much about the triathlon since arriving in Socorro. I've gone for lots of walks, ridden my bike a lot more than usual, and generally been pretty active, but, well, I should probably go running this afternoon.

g2) finish my book;
Remaining: I have to write the concluding chapter, and then the first draft will be done. Then, I have some rewrites. I have some consistency issues, keeping track of items, and how many people are in the room, etc. I also made some later changes to technology to make the story work better, and I have to go back and fix up the earlier chapters. But the first draft is almost done!

g3) learn one-tempi changes;
Remaining: Um, all. However, John's new horse already knows these, so I can learn them from him when I get home! (The horse, not John!) But I definitely can't do this from here.

Ok. So that's a lot. I'll make a list, and get back to you... oh, but before that. I need a ta-da list. That's probably a whole separate post.

The weird square thingy...

Right. So finally I asked somebody about the weird square thingy. We discussed it, and agreed it couldn't be a problem with clean. So he suggested I go back to the visibilities.

So I went back to the U-V plane, to look at the data. Yup. There it is. A couple of U-V visibilities needed to be flagged. No more weird square in two channels.

But all of this just points out that we darn well better invent autoflagging before the new correlator comes completely on line. It's one thing to look at data from 256 channels. It's a completely other thing to look at data from 100,000 channels. No one will use the thing if they have to find 'bad' data by hand.

So that's my next task. To figure out... wait for it... where the group is with the autoflagging. Because no one can remember.

Everything humans can consume...

is an appropriate delivery system for green chile.

Grilled ham and cheese and green chile. (Be sure to smoosh the edges of the bread together so the chile doesn't fall out while it's cooking!) This is my latest g.c. invention, and it's the best improvement on grilled cheese since sliced bread. Seriously. What am I going to do when I get home and I can't just buy it at the store anymore?!

Apparently, the green chile harvest has been falling in recent years. This year it's down 30% (I'm unclear if that is relative to some average, or to last year). "Why?" you ask. Because southern New Mexico has been getting too much rain. D'oh.

Wait...

what was I doing?

Where's my pencil?

What does this cryptic note mean: 'vague recollections of the weird square thingy'?

How do I log in to my computer again?

Password... password... password... I'm sure I had one.

D'oh. Return from very busy time away. Man. I'm sure there was a plan around here someplace.

More antics from Captain...

It's been a week now, and Captain has clearly settled in. He went for big hikes yesterday at the VLA, and had a wonderful time. He was good both on and off the leash, and then came home and snoozed the rest of the evening. He snores. Little whiffly dog snores. It's painfully cute. He also plays with toys, which is new for us.

Today, J joined the lunch group at DJ's. He was oddly nervous, but of course got along fine. Everyone should have a stuffed sopapilla from DJ's at least once in their life. Seriously. It's practically a religious experience. Everyone was very interested in his reaction to Socorro. I know why---people often really, really hate it. But, as J says, green chile sure makes up for a lot of empty space!

What is UP with...

scientists who are also programmers? (apologies to J, who is not this type...)

Here's the gist of a recent conversation:

Me: Does this widget graph the sum or the average?

Him: Average, but it doesn't matter.

Me: Yes it does.

Him: The only difference is that you divide by the number of pixels. It's a constant. It doesn't matter.

Me: But most of my pixels contain only noise. So the average doesn't tell me what I need to know. The average tells me there's nothing there, because on average, there isn't.

Him: You're just off by a constant.

Me: Sort of. But not really. I'm really beating down the signal, by averaging over all the noise. If I sum, I know how much signal I have, but if I average, I know some kind of signal per pixel, which is really, really tiny, because I'm looking at emission in a really tiny area. That's not what I want it to do. I want to see a graph of the signal, and I can't do that if I've just averaged it to zero.

Him: So just multiply by the number of pixels.

Me: But the way the widget works, I get there by drawing a box with the mouse around the object, and the widget doesn't tell me how many pixels it has. And anyway, how am I supposed to do a multiplication in the widget, so I get a graph of what I want?

Him: So just make a one pixel box.

Me: But that's a huge pain. Why should I have to go and make a bunch of one pixel boxes, when if I could just get the sum, it wouldn't be a problem? And how is that going to help anyway, because I don't have a way to add the pixels together again?

Him (condescendingly): You're not making any sense. It's just a constant offset, and it doesn't matter. I mean, come on. It's basic arithmetic. If you divide, and then you multiply, that's the same as not doing anything at all.

Me: (sigh. Rapid silent search for compromise...) Can you humor me, and make it so I can choose if it will sum or average? Some people might want one or the other.

Him: (walking away from me...) That doesn't make any sense. No. It averages. That's what it does.

Me: (grumble, grumble, grumble)

Now I am trying to figure out a way to sum, but not average.

Grumble, grumble...

Some Perspective

It's pretty hard, right at the moment, to keep everything in perspective. Between all of our own personal dramas, the local dramas that come with the tragically bizarre collapse of the economy, and the global dramas that come from not being able to keep our grubby mitts off yesterday's sunshine, a person can get seriously overwhelmed.

But then, you get to see this.


Please allow me to interpret the sci-jarg. The dot in the middle of the left image is an optical image of a galaxy that formed very early in the Universe. How early? About 12.8 billion years ago. You are looking at it as it forms, because the light that left during formation is just now getting to us. Ok. Go away and think about that for a minute, because that should blow your mind right there.

Back? Ok. The image on the right is of the same object, in the radio. Specifically, you are looking at the light emitted from carbon monoxide (CO). Go away again, and ponder the existence of carbon monoxide, only 870 million years after the Big Bang. Need some help with the staggering-ness? C and O form in stars. The existence of CO means there were stars that lived AND died before this big cloud could form. AND the cloud had time to cool enough for the C and the O to get together and share some electrons over coffee and a biscuit. AND the cloud had time for gravity to begin to draw it together to form something new. 870 Myrs is not very long for all of that to happen! The first stars must have been very, very massive, and very, very short-lived in order to get all this done in that short time. So, go. Ponder.

Back? Ok. So now you have to think about this. You are looking at a supermassive black hole (some millions of times the mass of the sun), and a giant elliptical galaxy (trillions of times the mass of the sun, eventually forming trillions of stars) being 'born'---at the same time, in the place, very early in the history of the Universe. Staggeringly, this is exactly how we thought it should happen. Staggeringly, I can explain it to you. Staggeringly, you can understand. Score one for the teeny-tiny, microscopic gray matter connections inside your head.

One of the biggest comforts of being an astronomer is knowing that the vast majority of the Universe doesn't care about me. It just does what it does. It goes on in all its profligate excesses of space and time, and all its random happenstance, whether or not I'm paying any attention at all.

Another comfort is that I am paying attention. And my own little gray matter adds its little pieces to the puzzle, which are written down, and so will be remembered long after we've forgotten all this year's particular drama, and the last of yesterday's sunshine is all used up.