Thursday, April 30, 2009

Python quasar colours


Resolution #11 was to learn python - last week I read all about tuples and lists and dictionaries and functions, then this week I used some python tools written by one of our other postdocs (Matt) to calculate the expected colours of multiply-imaged quasars we might find in the PS1 survey. It seems that the most time-consuming part of programming in python is tracking down the library function that does exactly what you want in one line!

"Colour" is a technical term in optical astronomy - its roughly the logarithm of the ratio of the brightnesses of an object seen through two different filters. PS1 has 5 filters, g, r, i, z, and y (blue-green, red, and three near infra-red filters), which gives 4 colours. I plotted the predicted colours against each other in pairs, with points coloured according to their disance from us (actually their redshift). You can see that (g-r) is the most informative for telling us if the quasar is very distant. You can also see that the actual brightness of the quasar is not very helpful, which I thought was quite surprising.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

1/3 in!

So we are 1/3 of the way through the year folks.... what! how did that happen??
so here's my blog update for the first third!

1) get a job in Oxford! - DONE! TICK! I've got a job for a year in Oxford- so maybe this time next year this resolution will be back ... but for now.. DONE yes!!

2)do exercise 3x a week - well I've been for 2 runs this week and a cycle ride - so for this week DONE! .. (just don't ask me about the last 3 months!!!)

3)wear more fashionable clothes -well I bought a long black coat to hide any fashion faux pas - which Phil (Both - how useful I don't have to write 2 names!) can testify to - its a cool coat! (photo comming soon!) however today I'm wearing the awful tri-club hoddie ripped jeans combo! shit!

4)cook a proper meal once a week - hummmm oh dear! this i must confess has not gone well - now I'm back living with my wonderful chef-turned-fiance I haven't cooked anything apart from 2 cauliflower cheeses in the past 9 weeks! oh dear! I could have chosen a more exciting dish hey Phil! I'm sorry!)

5)marry phil on the 25th July - wedding still going ahead as far as I know!!

6)get pregnant/ and or dog - hummm not going so well - but now I've got a job contract (with maternity leave!!)  it may only be a matter of months - I guess that goes for dog and child! I just have to purswade phil its a good idea! (any help on that would be greatly appreciated!)

7) play my guitar rubbishly - opps I left my guitar in Barcelona! - but I did help my flatmate tune his last week .... that probably doesn't count does it!

Well guys that's 1/7 in the bag, 2/7 half done and 4/7 to work on!
happy April!
good luck!
off to comment now
Txxx