MCMC code

I wrote and tested a general IDL implementation of Markov Chain Monte Carlo. It is checked into idlutils.

smooth image subtraction

Phil and I got the Bolton and Burles smooth-image fits working on all the LRGs, and fixed all download and data problems. We made b/w and color JPEGs of all LRGs and their residuals away from the smooth models, and a WWW page for browsing them. We discussed the short-term to-do list and the requirements for publication. Not bad for a 10-hour day starting at 06:00.

HST cutouts, smooth fits to LRGs

We cut out small postage stamps on all HST images (downloaded so far) of LRGs. Downloading continues as we blog. We got Burles's and Bolton's bspline image fitting code up and running (though we found a small bug).

I tried not to become enraged about the fact that ACS WCS header information is not correct!. It is our bound duty to fix this as soon as astrometry.net is off the ground.

Anatoly Spitkovsky gave a great talk on pulsar emission using force-free electrodynamics; he opined that full 3d time-dependent simulations would soon be possible.

HST/ACS imaging of LRGs

Phil and I got the HST data understood and staging at STScI, and downloading from the staging area. We started on the work of finding the LRG locations in the images and making cutouts for subtraction and inspection.

HST archive

Oh my goodness the HST Archive search, access, and retrieval tools are very bad if you want data on thousands of pointings! Phil and I beat our heads against this all day. But we do have all the datasets in which we are interested identified and tomorrow we hope to get them all downloaded.

What's wrong with the following numerology? HST takes an average of about 60 Mb of data per orbit, and orbits every 90 mins for 20 years. That's 1 Gb per day, or a lifetime total of about 7 Tb. We can spin this all at NYU, and give the community better (faster, more survey-oriented) access tools to boot.

Ted Baltz gave a wonderfully comprehensive talk about direct detection of dark matter.

HST archive

Phil and I found all HST/ACS pointings near all public SDSS LRGs. There aren't very many! Discussed lensing with much of Roger's group.

lensing and cosmology

Discussed many possible lensing and cosmology projects—with Phil Marshall, Roger Blandford, Marusa Bradac, Ted Baltz—for my week at SLAC. The goal is to do something in one week, preferably something interesting. Extreme coding may be involved.

Willman 2

I thought about the observing plan for our KPNO run. That's about it!

K+A asymptotics

I realized that in order to estimate the K+A event rate (or event probability), I need to select the K+As based on their asymptotic (t goes to infinity) expected properties, not their current properties. I figured out how to do this (sort-of) empirically.

cosmic ray cluster, astrometry, LSR

I looked at the AGN and star-forming galaxies in the field of Glennys Farrar's cosmic ray source candidate.

Morad, Sam, and I discussed the rejection of false positives for the astrometry engine, among other things.

I finished the LSR paper!

K+A rate density

I wrote (and typeset) the equations for the inference of the K+A rate density calculation for my disk–disk merger review.

Tyson, x-ray K+As

I discussed new large survey data with Tony Tyson, but did little else today.

In other news, Adrienne Juett wrote a Chandra proposal to observe some K+As, inspired partly by my talk at UVa yesterday!

LSR

I got the LSR paper slightly closer to re-submission. It is still not done.

LSR, Ursa Major, Barnes

I worked on getting the local standard of rest (LSR) paper ready for resubmission. It is not done yet.

I looked at the instrument manual and prepared some questions to answer in preparation for the April KPNO 4m Mosaic run to observe the new Ursa Major dwarf galaxy.

I digested Barnes' email and added his 1988 paper to my accretion bibliography. I had to type the abstract in by hand because NASA ADS has gramatically re-written abstracts. How insane is that?

disk–disk mergers

I wrote text for my disk–disk merger review.