Monday 24Jun19 - Fields in the Sky and Martial Arts
This morning did not exactly begin well. I sat down to begin checking emails, and saw one from Rebecca Larson sent six hours ago. That's around 2 am Monday morning; we're on drastically different schedules. She was informing me of a meeting in Maryland where they are discussing the GOODS survey data we are using. The had a call-in meeting on the East Coast at 9 am. That's 8 am here. I was already late, then had to download some web extension to try to join the meeting and that didn't work, probably because of limitations deliberately placed on this network computer. My morning started with unnecessary stress. There's no way I'm going to be a part of that call. Maybe I'll try tomorrow from my home computer. I suppose a lesson learned isn't time wasted. Still, modern communication limitations are always frustrating.
Now I need to think about the order of the day. Rebecca and I are to sit down this afternoon and draw a flowchart for the steps we need to take to write our code. In astronomy, galaxies are not universally indexed, but assigned indices based on the survey they were found in. If two different deep field surveys contain the same galaxy, they will not be catalogued by the same identifier in each database. Hubble maintains a database where every unique index associated with a galaxy from different surveys is listed.
We have spectrometry data; this is data about the various spectra of light coming from a galaxy. We can make guesses about how far away a galaxy is with this. There has also been a survey collecting photometric data about the galaxies we are studying. Photometry is a visual picture of a galaxy, and astronomers make guesses about how far away the galaxy is based on how it looks to their eyes. We want to compare these guesses. But the spectroscopy and photometry data are contained in two different surveys, so the index of any given galaxy we are studying differs.
Specifically Rebecca's code looks at the GOODS deep field survey data and returns a unique index associated with a galaxy. Once we have an output from Rebecca's code, we find all its possible survey-based indices in the Hubble universal database. Our code then searches the photometric survey database, locates the galaxy we want to study, and tells us the guess made by astronomers as to its distance. This distance guess is then sent back to Rebecca's code to make comparisons with the spectroscopy data. In theory this method will allow us to verify or at least narrow down the accuracy of our spectroscopy/photometry guesses. The data that our code will be chewing on is not ready yet, so we also need to build fake databases to test our code on.
This is my understanding.
As complicated as it all is to explain, I think that I have the skills needed to accomplish this. This morning I will spend some time with a Python tool called Pandas which Rebecca suggested will be the easiest way for us to achieve our goals. Briana, one of the graduate students in the department, wrote a whole tutorial on how to use Pandas, and she sent me that information. I think that will be quite enough to occupy my morning. In the afternoon, if I have made some progress I will approach her to clarify any guesses and get help cleaning up my code. Dr. Micaela Bagley, a post-doc on our research team, is very accomplished with Python, but uses a different tool called Astropy Tables to accomplish things similar to our project. Between what I can derive from their expertise with these different methods, I should be able to write some very powerful code.
The Gregory Gymnasium on campus is holding adult beginner swimming lessons at 7 pm. Their online registration was booked, but I plan to show up to ask whether I can join anyway. Someone may have cancelled, or they may simply be pleased with my initiative. Besides, there's a registration fee. I can't imagine they'll turn down the money. If they say no, c'est la vie. I'm no worse off. I desperately want some formal swimming lessons. It's a crucial skill for astronaut candidacy since a good deal of their training is done in water. Every time I want to learn a new skill, people seem determined to throw barriers in my way. We're expected to learn everything we'll ever be good at as children, and then do that for the rest of our lives.
On a positive note, a representative from the Aikido club on campus responded in the affirmative to my inquiry about attending their summer classes. They meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The only reputable Jiu Jitsu academy I found in Austin is about an hour's travel by public transit, so I can only attend on weekends, and they only meet on Saturdays. That means that I have only been able to practice once a week since I got here. Being able to practice grappling three times a week will be crucial for me to maintain my fledgling skillset. Additionally, there is a small gym on campus with a heavy bag, speedbag, and enough space for me to skip rope. I am overjoyed at having a space that accommodates my resumption of boxing training. It's the summer, so there are blessedly few students around, but I found a potential sparring partner in there on Sunday. And apparently Ariel, one of the TAURUS scholars, is also interested in boxing.
The last few weeks have allowed me enough free time and structured schedule for me to really begin settling into an athletic groove. I had forgotten just how much pleasure my body derives from this. Counterintuitively, thanks to all this exercise I have an astonishing amount of energy.
Now I need to think about the order of the day. Rebecca and I are to sit down this afternoon and draw a flowchart for the steps we need to take to write our code. In astronomy, galaxies are not universally indexed, but assigned indices based on the survey they were found in. If two different deep field surveys contain the same galaxy, they will not be catalogued by the same identifier in each database. Hubble maintains a database where every unique index associated with a galaxy from different surveys is listed.
We have spectrometry data; this is data about the various spectra of light coming from a galaxy. We can make guesses about how far away a galaxy is with this. There has also been a survey collecting photometric data about the galaxies we are studying. Photometry is a visual picture of a galaxy, and astronomers make guesses about how far away the galaxy is based on how it looks to their eyes. We want to compare these guesses. But the spectroscopy and photometry data are contained in two different surveys, so the index of any given galaxy we are studying differs.
Specifically Rebecca's code looks at the GOODS deep field survey data and returns a unique index associated with a galaxy. Once we have an output from Rebecca's code, we find all its possible survey-based indices in the Hubble universal database. Our code then searches the photometric survey database, locates the galaxy we want to study, and tells us the guess made by astronomers as to its distance. This distance guess is then sent back to Rebecca's code to make comparisons with the spectroscopy data. In theory this method will allow us to verify or at least narrow down the accuracy of our spectroscopy/photometry guesses. The data that our code will be chewing on is not ready yet, so we also need to build fake databases to test our code on.
This is my understanding.
As complicated as it all is to explain, I think that I have the skills needed to accomplish this. This morning I will spend some time with a Python tool called Pandas which Rebecca suggested will be the easiest way for us to achieve our goals. Briana, one of the graduate students in the department, wrote a whole tutorial on how to use Pandas, and she sent me that information. I think that will be quite enough to occupy my morning. In the afternoon, if I have made some progress I will approach her to clarify any guesses and get help cleaning up my code. Dr. Micaela Bagley, a post-doc on our research team, is very accomplished with Python, but uses a different tool called Astropy Tables to accomplish things similar to our project. Between what I can derive from their expertise with these different methods, I should be able to write some very powerful code.
The Gregory Gymnasium on campus is holding adult beginner swimming lessons at 7 pm. Their online registration was booked, but I plan to show up to ask whether I can join anyway. Someone may have cancelled, or they may simply be pleased with my initiative. Besides, there's a registration fee. I can't imagine they'll turn down the money. If they say no, c'est la vie. I'm no worse off. I desperately want some formal swimming lessons. It's a crucial skill for astronaut candidacy since a good deal of their training is done in water. Every time I want to learn a new skill, people seem determined to throw barriers in my way. We're expected to learn everything we'll ever be good at as children, and then do that for the rest of our lives.
On a positive note, a representative from the Aikido club on campus responded in the affirmative to my inquiry about attending their summer classes. They meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The only reputable Jiu Jitsu academy I found in Austin is about an hour's travel by public transit, so I can only attend on weekends, and they only meet on Saturdays. That means that I have only been able to practice once a week since I got here. Being able to practice grappling three times a week will be crucial for me to maintain my fledgling skillset. Additionally, there is a small gym on campus with a heavy bag, speedbag, and enough space for me to skip rope. I am overjoyed at having a space that accommodates my resumption of boxing training. It's the summer, so there are blessedly few students around, but I found a potential sparring partner in there on Sunday. And apparently Ariel, one of the TAURUS scholars, is also interested in boxing.
The last few weeks have allowed me enough free time and structured schedule for me to really begin settling into an athletic groove. I had forgotten just how much pleasure my body derives from this. Counterintuitively, thanks to all this exercise I have an astonishing amount of energy.
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