Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Not only am I an IDL graphing machine...

...I'm also a LaTeX machine!!!!

While Beth is away, I'm working to compile all the work I've done so far into a LaTeX document. I have never used LaTeX before, and I'm kind of enjoying it. I think, like graphing in IDL, I like figuring out the different commands to make my work look good. Here's the outline for my document:

1. Intro
2. Calculations for Average Surface Brightness at Half-Light Radius (both Methods)
3. Figures (Surface Brightness v distance, Size-Luminosity, ellipticity, Surface Brightness Methods comparison)

I was able to get through writing section 2 this afternoon, mostly because this morning, I calculated the Avg Surface Brightness at half-light radius using Method 2-- i.e. using an exponential model and applying it to the known central surface brightness.

Beth wanted me to do this by integrating in IDL, and calling a function I wrote for the exponential relation. However, that didn't work out. Hopefully she'll show me where I went wrong in that procedure when she gets back from France, but I for now I solved for all of the necessary integrals thanks to wolframalpha.com. Now I'm just waiting to input the finished data for central surface brightness care of Mimi-- (who's back from home! hooray!)

Here's what's up for tomorrow:
- use Mimi's data and find Surface Brightness with Method 2
- make figures comparing Methods 1 & 2
- start writing section (3) in LaTeX document

1 comment:

  1. Nice work!

    Try emailing me your IDL errors and your IDL code... I might be able to quickly debug from afar.

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