Observing run debriefing

My apologies that I didn't get around to writing anything yesterday about my observing run on Friday night. This was partly because I was busy working on my take-home final for Partial Differential Equations and studying for my Electromagnetism final, and partly because staying up all night does some wacky stuff to your head. I knew it was Saturday, because I headed to the library for a previously-scheduled study group, and yet Saturday night I steadfastly maintained to Jonathan that it was Friday, until being informed by my watch otherwise. I have a slight break from busyness right now; as of this writing I have just completed both the take-home final and the final paper for PDE's . My final paper was on the Schrödinger Wave Equation and how it can be solved to give the electron orbitals in a hydrogen atom, and it came out looking beautiful, especially with the graphics I included showing the first ten orbitals (1s-4f, if you're interested). \(\LaTeX\) is such an amazing typesetting program

But back to my observing run Friday night with Dr. Takamiya. We started about 5:30 in the afternoon, heading into the Institute for Astronomy building just above campus to remotely control the UH 2.2 meter telescope atop Mauna Kea (no, we didn't actually go up the mountain this time). Our telescope operator (TO) got there about 6, and we proceeded to start the telescope computers and the instrument we were using (a camera called SNIFS) and put them through a battery of pre-observing tests, calibrations, and routines. The sun didn't set till almost 7, and twilight didn't end for another half-hour after that, so we were performing tests and getting things set up for almost an hour and a half.

Thankfully, we had perfect weather, no clouds or other obstacles. We had a rather humorous incident where the Gemini observatory called us to tell us that they were planning to shine their adaptive-optics laser into the area we were observing, and were we going to be observing there much longer? We only had another 20 minutes there anyway, and they very politely waited, even calling again to make sure we had left. We could see their laser on the all-sky camera mounted at the summit to watch for clouds, which was pretty nifty

As the night progessed, Dr. Takamiya showed me how to issue orders to the telescope, and I got to tell it to take several exposures. We were observing relatively nearby galaxies, taking pictures first of an ionized hydrogen region, followed by a picture of a blank patch of sky nearby which we'll subtract from the image later on (technically we were capturing the spectra of the regions, in order to measure the relative abundance of different elements, so no visual pictures. Sorry)

I also learned a new word Friday night (or maybe early Saturday morning, it gets hard to tell): telluric, which means "earthly", as in "starlight that comes to us is affected by clouds and other telluric factors". I already knew that 'tellus' is the Latin word for earth, (which is what the element tellurium is named for), so I was able to guess in context what telluric meant, I just never knew it existed in English before. Now I just need to find a conversation in which to use it..

The night went pretty uneventfully, except for a portion when we weren't able to get a guide star to work for about 10 minutes. The hardest part was staying awake during the 20-minute exposures when there wasn't much to do but watch the guide star and make sure the focus didn't wander (seems like the hardest time is from 2 to 3 in the morning, after that I woke up a bit). We started shutting down about 4:30, since twilight came around 5, which is when we finally left. Luckily, I got home and made it into bed before the sun rose at 5:30, or I probably wouldn't have gotten much sleep. As it was I got several hours of very good sleep in (I think it's funny that I was the person up the latest in our house, and I still got up before anyone else, around 10:00).

Well, with my PDE stuff done, I don't really have anything to do tonight, so it's time for a little relaxation, before hitting the books next week. My PDE final is tomorrow, but it's simply turning in things and watching a few classmates' presentations, nothing to worry about. After that I have two finals on Wednesday, and one on Thursday, so it's studying Monday and Tuesday.

Oh, I almost forgot to say, Happy Mother's Day, mom! And thank you very much for the chocolate in your latest package; I've been slowly chipping away at it. Aloha wau iā 'oe! (I love you!)

Oh happiness and felicity! Classes are done!

Ahh, today is a day of great rejoicings! I have finished and turned in the last homework assignment for this semester (true, I have a take-home test for Partial Differential Equations due on Monday, but that is much preferable to an in-class test in that class). I was highly honored today by Dr. Figueroa asking for copies of my last two homework sets to use as the basis for the answer key he was compiling for them, since I typically get most of the problems right (I may have mentioned that the free textbook we're using has no answers, so he has to compile answer keys for the homework he assigns himself).
Speaking of the most recent homework we had for Complex Analysis, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Residue Theorem as promised. The Residue Theorem is often called "the crown jewel of complex analysis", and now I know why. Problems that previously would have been incredibly difficult, or even impossible, are now a snap. I didn't get a chance to work on the homework until Monday, and expected to be spending upwards of ten hours on it, and was very pleasantly surprised as problem after problem fell to the power of the Residue Theorem. I finished approximately 90% of the problems in less than two hours, and took only about another hour for the remaining ones. The feeling was one of delight, as previously-impossible problems became simple ones. I can hardly wait to actually use it in a physics application now.
The details are a bit deep (it took a whole semester to build up to them!), but basically, it says that when integrating over a region that contains one or more singularities (places where division by zero occurs), the integral is equal to 2πi times the sum of the residues, which are the values of the function being integrated attains at the singularities. Since plugging in the number directly would be undefined, residues have to be found another way, which can be as easy as a single differentiation (though they can certainly be difficult to compute, as well). The beauty of the theorem, is that it completely removes the need to actually integrate anything, which is very nice (differentiation is a science; integration is an art [integration is the inverse of differentiation, if you haven't taken calculus, and while you learn differentiation in first-semester calculus, it takes the rest of that semester plus another three to really get a handle on integration]).
Tomorrow night, I have been invited by Dr. Takamiya to go on an observing run. We won't be going up Mauna Kea; instead, we'll be controlling the telescope from the Institute for Astronomy building near campus (I'm not sure which telescope it is, though. I'll let you know when I find out). I also don't know how long I'll be there, it could be an all-nighter! I'll be sure to let you know all about it Friday.

Building a working cloud chamber, part 4.

Sigh...the end of the semester cannot come soon enough for me.

Homework piles upon presentation upon paper...great undulating waves of responsibility threatening to swamp me. Thankfully, I gave my presentation for Partial Differential Equations today, and it went off fine (pretty good, considering I finished assembling it an hour before and practiced not at all). Now only a few assignments remain before a breather next weekend in preparation for the four finals I have the week after that.

One of those assignments is the presenting of our cloud chamber experiment on Tuesday for our last Modern Physics class. Today we ran our cloud chamber experiment for the 4th time, with, unfortunately, depressingly null results. We we quite confident of seeing something this time, especially since one of the professors graciously loaned us a sample of uranium to use as a particle source (I've never gotten to hold real uranium before!). We got a cloud just fine, but were unable to register more than a few, questionable, tracks. We decided to flip the assembly upside down again, in order to get a less turbulent cloud, which worked, somewhat. We were able to get a cloud....it was just very thin, and didn't really show trails.  So...I think the fact that we have the setup right means we'll do fine as far as grading goes (this experiment is 15% of our grade, if I remember correctly), but it's slightly disappointing not to have been able to get irrefutable particle tracks.

Anyway, yesterday I discovered by accident that Google has finally updated the satellite imagery of my home in California (after only, what, 5 or 6 years?). In fact, I was able to see the very hut I built for my ducks a year ago. It was slightly surreal, and left me dumbfounded that something I built with my own hands could be visible FROM SPACE (to be fair, I didn't build it by myself [Dad deserves a fair share of credit], but it was my idea and pet project).

Thankfully I remain in good health overall, just harried by assignments nipping at my heels as the semester draws to a close. I don't know how much I'll be able to write in the next two weeks, but I'll try to post a short something or other to keep you all informed of how I'm doing.

Sights of spring in Hawai`i.

Wow...I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last wrote anything here. Rest assured, I am still here and have no intentions to stop blogging, I've just been really, really, busy. And when I had a brief respite, I really didn't feel like sitting down and writing. However! I'm writing now, and that's what counts.

Where to start...the main reason I was busy this week is because I had  Modern Physics homework due on Tuesday, an Electromagnetism take-home test due on Wednesday, my third and final Calculus 4 exam on Thursday, and Complex Analysis homework due as usual on Friday (which, thankfully, was moved to Monday, but I didn't know that until Friday morning).

Tuesday after turning in the Modern Physics homework I made a final push on the EM test. After the previous homework in that class, I was pleasantly surprised: it only took me 9 hours to do the last 8 problems on the test, and I got to go to bed just after midnight.
My feelings of mild happiness were quickly crushed the next morning when I handed it in, because not only did we get another homework assignment, but we got the last one back, where I found to my extreme dismay that I had made only 70%. That may possibly be the lowest grade I have ever got in college, and I was...displeased. I can only hope that the most recent test felt easy because it was and I was doing it right, not because I was doing it wrong...

Thankfully the calculus test went fairly well, small compensation for the worry I poured into it ahead of time, and as I mentioned the Complex Analysis homework was postponed till Monday. Equally thankfully, this week looks to be rather quiet, about the only big project I have coming up is finishing my paper and presentation for my project in Partial Differential Equations (which overlaps nicely with the test we have in Modern Physics on Tuesday).

Finally, in a lighter vein than recounting all my woes, I offer a sight of Hawaiian spring. Most of the plumeria trees have been blooming more than ever the last few weeks, including the one in our backyard. Here's a shot from the kitchen window, with the backyard and plumeria tree (yes, I know, our backyard is a bit of a mess...).

Excursions into the infinite complex plane.

So much has happened since I last wrote ... I'm still working on making sense out of it all.

Homework has been keeping me busy, as usual. I once again have several things due over the weekend, so I will be busy working on that. Between electromagnetism, partial differential equations, modern physics, and calculus IV, I have plenty to keep me occupied.
As if that weren't enough, I got my computer back from the campus tech guy, who was unable to find anything wrong with it other than the fact that the computer simply refuses to acknowledge the wireless module, and it still locks up, with no pattern that I can seem to figure out, yet in an oddly non-random way. I'm unsure which way to go at this point ... I hardly have time to deal with warranties and such, but I could really use my computer working fully as the end of the semester approaches.

Before I forget, I'd like to say a big 'thank you' to my aunt and uncle who were out here this week for everything -- the dinners were great, and the conversation and catching up were awesome. It was really nice to take a break and focus on something other than school for a while. So, mahalo nui loa! (thank you very much)

 In other news, I managed to solve another problem for my Complex Analysis professor today, which was the question of the convergence or lack thereof of the geometric series in the complex plane on the unit circle. If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't worry, you're not missing much. Infinite series and sequences are some of my least favorite subjects from Calculus II, and from the people I've talked to, many others feel exactly the same way. They inspire...strong feelings, to put it mildly. This is because they are very complicated, and most of the time you work with them is spent trying to figure out if a particular series converges or not. (Convergence means that if you add up an infinite number of terms from the series, you will get a finite number. Divergence simply means that you get infinity. This can be a surprisingly difficult thing to do) The geometric series is one of the few series for which you can actually find what it converges to; its terms look like \(x^n\), for n from zero to infinity. (Its first few terms are \(1 + x + x^2 + x^3 + ...\)) It is well known that for any x less than 1, the series  converges, while for any x greater than 1 it diverges. This is because its radius of convergence is equal to 1, and it turns out that every infinite series has such a radius, inside which it converges and outside which it diverges. On the real number line, the word 'radius' doesn't seem to make much sense, because there are only two points for the boundary, but in the complex plane it makes perfect sense because you are dealing with a plane in which numbers can approach from any direction, instead of merely from the left or right.
Anyway, in the real case, it can be shown that the geometric series diverges at \(x = 1\) and \(x =-1\), for different reasons. But that's only two points. The question in the complex case is, what happens for all the other infinite number of points on the circle of radius 1 around the origin? (written symbolically as \(|z|=1\)) However, there is a rather simple (once you see it) and elegant proof that the geometric series diverges for all \(|z|=1\), and I was able to be the inspiration for my professor that enabled him to discover it today (though as usual, the proof he came up with was much more elegant and simple than the clumsy one I had cobbled together). 

Problems in paradise.

Hello everyone

Once again I have been too busy to write for a few days, mostly working on my electromagnetism homework that was due on Friday, for which I stayed up till 2 in the morning to finish. And then, fittingly enough as we approach the end of the semester, my new computer's wireless module decided to conk out on me yesterday. It appears to be a bona fide hardware problem, so it looks like I'm stuck till I can find someone to fix it. This morning when I turned on my old computer I thought for a while that it had suddenly stopped working as well, and was starting to wonder if I had inadvertently grown an anti-Internet aura, but thankfully a simple restart fixed the problem, else you would not be reading this post right now.

So…

Expect fewer posts from me for a time, due both to my busyness and this. Thankfully, my new computer continues to function fine in other respects, so I can at least use it for non-Internet related school things, like working on my project for PDE's. And the take-home test for that class, and the new take-home test for electromagnetism, and…yeah. I suppose, if I can live through the end of the semester I can make it through anything, but that's a pretty big 'if' with the seemingly ever-accelerating pace of things.

My consolation for doing all this homework is that I can typeset it with \(\LaTeX\). It makes doing the work almost fun, with the expectation of seeing beautifully typeset math come out of what you do. When I have time and opportunity, I'll attach some pictures of the gorgeous results of \(\LaTeX\) typesetting from my homework, so you can see what it's like.

Finally, I'll be heading up to Mauna Kea tonight with some other UAC members since it's the second Saturday of the month. It's close to new moon, so if the weather will cooperate, I hope to get some great astrophotos that maybe I'll have time to process and show you all some day.

Back to the daily grind.

I haven't had time to write for a while because I've been rather busy this week with two homeworks due on Friday and a Partial Differential Equations take-home test due next Wednesday. It's not helping my efficiency that I'm trying to learn some of the new programs I installed over spring break at the same time, like \(\LaTeX\) for typesetting homework. Typesetting things is immensely fun, almost addicting, but the learning curve is...not gentle. Still, the rewards are great, and it's an investment that will continue to pay off throughout my life. It's very satisfying to watch a long, complicated plain text document get turned into an elegant PDF file with everything arranged in a professional looking manner. I'll try to insert a sample from my homework of \(\LaTeX\)'s beautiful formatting when I get a chance.

To-do

Things to do over spring break:

• Install and start learning IRAF.
• Check out and start learning \(\LaTeX\). In progress.
• Brush up my (minimal) Python coding skills.
• Check out Maxima. Did, found it to be part of Sage.
• Download and begin learning Sage. In progress.
• Check out GeoGebra.
• Start learning Synfig. Started...
• Figure out new Blender interface.
• Figure out how to integrate LuxRender with Blender (possibly).
• Learn how to use Avidemux (possibly).
• Explore JavaScript a bit more (possibly). 
• Do Partial Differential Equations homework. Started. Got stuck.
• Do Electromagnetism homework.
• Finish up Gravitation and Cosmology homework. 
• Brush up on Calculus homework (possibly). 
• Finish Complex Analysis homework. Done!
• Fill out census form. Done!
• Do taxes. Done!
• Clean my room. Done!
• Figure out class schedule for next semester. 
• Update this blog a little more frequently. Pretty well.
• Finish moving all my music onto my new computer. Mostly done. 
• Check out possible scholarship/internship opportunities.
• Get up to the Vis at least once. Did!
• Go to the beach (if it warms up and stops raining).
• Do various other, as-yet-undetermined, things. 
• Enjoy life in Hawai`i, even if it is rainy and cold currently.

Oh, and sleep and eat should probably be on there somewhere as well.

The little things in life.

Today I discovered a new joy in life...typesetting mathematical equations in OpenOffice. I think it's quite strange, but writing my Partial Differential Equations paper this afternoon was an incredibly relaxing and fun experience. I'm going to see if I can find a way to attach a picture of it, because it just looks so nice -- like something you'd see in a textbook, not something created in a few hours with absolutely zero experience in typesetting prior to that (I guess that's a testament to how easy the system is to learn).
Anyway, I'm as surprised at this as most of you no doubt are, but very grateful to boot. I really needed something related to school to be fun this semester...

More busyness.

I realize I haven't written anything for a couple days, mostly due to the sheer number of homework assignments that seem to have conspired to be due around now. Right now, I have Modern Physics homework due tomorrow (thankfully completed tonight), Partial Differential Equations homework due on Friday and a 2-page writing assignment in the same class due on Monday (it's a writing intensive course). I also have an Electromagnetism test due on Friday, as well as a currently unknown(!) number of Complex Analysis problems ("at least ten") due the same day. So that is why I haven't written anything recently.

However, before wrapping up tonight, I'd like to mention the results of a test I ran to compare the processor speed of my old and new computer. I found a rather large and detailed scene I'd made in Blender, a 3-D modeling program, and rendered it on both computers. The results? Old computer: ~2:05. New computer: 0:09.75, or a whopping 12.82 times faster. It's interesting that both processors are rated at the same speed, 1.6GHz, the main difference is that my new computer has 4 cores running at that speed compared to one in my old (there are a few other small differences as well). Now, the speed increase is probably not due entirely to the processor, since this computer also has 16 times more RAM and a 1GB video card (my old computer doesn't even have a discrete video card), but the processor is certainly a large part of it. So next time you're considering a new computer, take it from me: quad-core is the way to go. Dual-core, at least.


(I hope to eventually expand this into a sort of series of reviews doing point-by-point comparisons of my new and old computers in various categories. We'll see how far I get.)