DAY 19- "Line Diagnostics"

Today Jake had me research articles pertaining to line diagnostics. Read up on that stuff. Refined my jet code. Thats about it it. Tomorrow's Friday. Sweet.

Day 18- "Birthday. Book. Blog."

So I had a pretty easy day today. The interns enjoyed a birthday celebration at noon with some quality pizza and cake. Then Jake told me to go to the library and sign out a book on AGN. After getting the book I skimmed through it and took some notes. Then I wrote this blog entry. It feels good to be inside reading when its raining outside. Good stuff.

Day 17- "Victory thy name is Chris Fallon"

So anyways today we had the meeting with Stefi and Chris that went pretty smoothly. I figure out what was wrong with my jet program. That made me happy. I made a table also that had the galaxies with normal spectra which I posted on the wiki page. Thats about it. Tune in tomorrow for another exciting adventure of Mr. Fallon.

Day 16- "Sweet Spectral Science Stuff. Sort of."

Well today is Monday. Another work week begins here at CIS. So I figured out that I wasn't in the employee system for the past week. So I had to go to University Services where I received $400 in cash. Wow. But everything is figured out thanks to Joe and Bob. Besides that I kept going through the spectra of the sample galaxies and analyzing the different spectral lines. Good day.

Day 15- "Join us...Join us..."

So today I finished my program to implement the jets into my graphs. Then I looked through the spectra of the galaxies. Then all of a sudden Kevin arrived with our Insight Lab t-shirts! After we gathered all our researchers we paraded around RIT intimidating people with our white shirts. Fun times. TGIF.

Day 14- "50% Chance of a Brainstorm tonight."

So today I spent the majority of the day staring at my IDL Programming window trying to think what to do. I am not exactly sure what my next step should be, but I am brainstorming ideas of how to quantify my observations. It would be cool if Jake could give me some guidance...

Day 13 - "If at first you don't succeed."

So today Jake decided not to come. I worked on my program improving it and making sure it functioned properly. I looked at the spectra data that Jake gave me and brainstormed ideas how I could use it. I also tried to figure out the jet issue with my program, but for some reason the 'fits_read' procedure was written wrong because it does not work. I don't know. Thats it for Wednesday.

Day 12- "Jets are not my friend."

Today I tried to modify my code so that it would plot the positions of the jets with the other data. However I could not really figure it out and I will try again tomorrow. I also received more data on spectra that will help my investigation further. Thats about it...Peace.

Day 11- "One Step Back. Two Steps Forward"

So things are finally moving along. I have overcome some minor setbacks and I am currently moving forwards with my project. I was told by Jake to look at spectra of the galaxies to hopefully reveal something. I have a lot of "freedom" with this project and how I want to approach this investigation, so there is always a period of brainstorming before any action. But, this technique seems to be working...so I'll stick with it for now.

DAY 10 = "Bootleg Programming"

End of the second week. It's been a long week and today was the epitome of annoyance. After spending hours trying to create a program that would enable me to input galaxy names, I realized there was another way to accomplish this same procedure. Although I consider it bootleg, it is easy to use and is just as effective. Take that IDL.

DAY 9- "Wow I'm an idiot"

So today I spent a large portion of the day trying to rewrite a procedure to read data into IDL. It turned out, after hours of painful failure, the reason my program was not running right was because I was not typing the procedure into the command line. Which is something that I already knew... ridiculous.

DAY 8- "Copy and Waste"

So today Jake told me to look through his directory for specific procedures to help me with the unorganized column problem found in out2 and out3 files. I located them and transfered them to my directory. However they are functioning procedures in IDL, so Jake told me to copy and paste specific functions and pieces of these procedures and create my own program. However I could not get them to work and I am having a little trouble comprehending the syntax. Unfortunately I am only here for a half-day because I have an early soccer game today and I have to be home around 1:30. I will pick up where I left tomorrow...

Day 7- "IDL hates me...=("

Jake still isn't here, but I did make some progress on the 'readcol' procedure that was troubling me yesterday. However the data I am looking for is not neatly organized so I have been looking for it. I looked into the 'e8.out' files which contained 63 rows with flux, velocity, sigma, etc. which I think means it has all 3 slits included. So I wanted to try to make plots with only rows 1 -21, but I cannot figure that out using idl. Also the .out2 files have the gas dispersion data and the .out3 have the flux data, but they are not in neat columns and so readcol is useless. I also tried to make a program that utilizes 'readcol', but it is included in the 'idlstartup' package and is not a function included in IDL itself. Therefore it kept returning it as an unknown procedure. I will try again tomorrow...the struggle continues.

Day 6- "Fundays are Mondays...NOT!"

So it turns out that Greg and Jake went to Chicago this week. They will be back here in the Insight Lab on Thursday. This meant that today whenever I had a question I had to message Jake on instant messenger. But its cool because it allowed me to think more independently and progress with my own ideas. I figured out where the 'idlstartup.pro' was located in my folder after spending about an hour trying to unzip tar files and copy them to my directory. Although I was unsuccessful at first I think that I have set myself up to continue working where I left off...I have overcome this Scientists' block.

Day 5- "Roadie Plates are for Winners"

TGIF. Its been a long week and an entertaining one, but I am ready for the weekend. Today I finished the qualitative observations and I plan on beginning plots next week. For lunch I had a garbage plate a.k.a "Roadie Plate" here at RIT. Why do I speak of this meal? Because the mixture of delicious ingredients into one messy feast is comparable to the random events and the quality experience that I gained during this one exhausting week. Mmm...Astronomical Imaging.

Day 4- "Ready. Set. Research."

FINALLY after days of getting set up with various internet sites and downloading multiple programs I am ready to begin my research. I will be studying the jet and disk interactions of FR-I galaxies. We also finished our IDL course which helped to strengthen my understanding of that type of computer programming. I hope to finish the qualitative observations next week and begin more quantitative observations using IDL. I am going to keep working for a little while then we have the 5 o'clock meeting and then heading home for some pizza. Peace.

Day 3- "I.D.L. = Its Difficult Learning"

Well today we began our day with the usual two meetings. Then I helped Sean and Emma set up their wiki pages and other computer-related things. We had our Java's meeting and ate lunch at Crossroads. The IDL course today was much more informative, but it took a great deal of concentration and analysis of the code. I think that I am beginning to understand the basics of IDL. I had to leave early to go help Jake with another project "A Journey of a Photon". Thats about it...keep tuning in.

DAY 2- "Today is Tuesday"

Hello. Well today is my second day here at CIS. We started our day off with intern meeting and then went to the insight lab for our 9:00 am meeting. Following that we journeyed off into another room because Jake had the interns discuss a scientific paper. After our discussion we went to the library to research AGN and black holes. We had a coffee break and then ate lunch. In the afternoon we took an IDL course where we designed a program to say "Today is Tuesday". Thats about it.

DAY 1- "We Didn't Start the Fire"

Well today I began my first day as an intern at the Center of Imaging Science. We started the day off with a scavenger hunt across campus. The "A" team were experts in this activity and are hopefully going to receive t-shirts. We had a meeting with all the interns while simultaneously stuffing our face with pizza. During a presentation on Imaging Science there was a sudden loud alarm. What? Where? Why? The fire alarm was signaled and we were all rushed out! Now we are anxiously awaiting the news while we sit in the library...