Lecture01: Where to Find Information

Lecture01: Where to Find Information

OUTLINE

  1. SIMBAD: Stellar Properties
  2. VizieR Catalog Service
  3. Aladin Interactive Sky Atlas
  4. Astrophysical Data Service (ADS)
  5. IDL: Excellent for plotting data
  6. Why write papers for the scientific journals
  7. Planning to write a scientific paper
  8. Techniques of writing a scientific paper
  9. Latex: An operating system independent language for manuscript preparation
  10. Problems for the student

SIMBAD: STELLAR PROPERTIES

VIZIER CATALOG SERVICE

ALADIN INTERACTIVE SKY ATLAS

ASTROPHYSICAL DATA SERVICE (ADS)

INTERACTIVE DATA LANGUAGE (IDL)

WHY WRITE PAPERS FOR THE SCIENTIC JOURNALS

  1. Publishing papers in the scientific literature (journals and books) and oral presentations at scientific meetings and seminars) are the only way of telling the rest of the world what you have done and making yourself known.
  2. Great ideas, excellent observing and data analysis skills, and hard work are not sufficieint. Your collegues need to know what you have done.
  3. So developing writing skills and lecture skills are critically important. (ASTROPHYSICS IS A LITERARY PROFESSION.) Developing good writing skills and organizing how you write will help prevent "writer's block".
  4. English in the lingua franca of contemporary science just as Latin, French, and German used to be and perhaps Chinese will be.
  5. Creativity and the ability to bring together insights, data, and theory from different fields of research is important in creating an excellent paper.

PLANNING TO WRITE A SCIENTIFIC PAPER

  1. You need a new idea or a way to take an existing idea forward. This involves either a new dataset with which to address a problem, a new or more developed theoretical approach, or a way of combining or reanalyzing existing data sets from the archives.
  2. Acquire the data you need either from new observations or from data archives.
  3. Find from the literature or (better) develop yourself a model for understanding the data.
  4. Work closely with collaborators who can provide the data, models, or understanding of what has been done in the past. Don't be afraid to ask for help (even from somebody who you do not know.)

TECHNIQUES FOR WRITING A SCIENTIFIC PAPER

  1. Use first person (singular if you are the sole author) active voice. ("I observed the star." not "The star was observed.")
  2. Develop a logical approach including the following steps:
    • Clearly state the problem to be solved.
    • Describe the previous work (observational and theoretical) and say why this work should and can be improved.
    • Describe the new data (which instruments, which modes, when, S/N, where archived, etc.).
    • Describe the data reduction and analysis proceedure.
    • Develop or cite the theoretical approach used to make the model used to understand the data.
    • Discuss the implications of your work and what new obserations of theory are needed to carry this work forward.
    • Summarize your work and its conclusions.
  3. Consider writing the paper in the following order:
    • Data figures (Plot measured quantities against time, space, and other quantities to show functional or statistical relations. Include predictions of various theories or models in the figures for comparison with the data).
    • A "cartoon" that shows how your model works and how it explains the data. (Bengt Gustafsson is the expert for this.)
    • Title (Summarize your conclusions in a few words. This can be a real challenge so be creative.)
    • Abstract (Say what you have done and why it is important in the grand scheme of astrophysics all in one paragraph).
    • Tables of data or model predictions.
    • Text that says what you have already shown in the figures, "cartoon", title, abstract, and tables. (At this point the text is easy since you have already done most of the work.)
    • References and acknowledgements.
  4. Start with a macro that is either a test manuscript file from the journal website or a file of another paper written for the same journal. Then keep all of the formatting material and replace all of the content.
  5. Write the paper in a language that is independent of computer operating systems so that you can iterate back and forth among the coauthors without having to remove the "signatures" of different operating systems. This language must be able to include figures, equations, tables, etc.

LATEX: AN OPERATING SYSTEM INDEPENDENT LANGUAGE FOR MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

PROBLEMS FOR THE STUDENT

  1. Make a list of all O-type stars with B magnitudes between 2 and 4 which can be observed from Boulder. Plot their locations in the sky in Galactic and ecliptic coordinates. Is there a pattern in the data? TBD
  2. Make a list of all brown dwarfs described in the catalogs of infrared observations. Plot their locations in Galactic coordinates. Which of these stars have been detected at x-ray and ultraviolet wavelengths? TBD
  3. Make a list of the 10 highest proper motion stars that have b oth x-ray and ultraviolet detections. Plot their x-ray vs ultraviolet fluxes. TBD
  4. Make a list of the 10 brightest x-ray sources in the Ursa Major cluster (Col 285). Plot their location in ecliptic coordinates at epoch 0 and overplot their location at epoch 2000. Has the big Dipper changed in shape in 2000 years? TBD
  5. What is known about the Trapezium Cluster (NGC 1976) stars? How many stars are in the cluster? What are their properties? Plot the ratio of their x-ray/UV fluxes vs B magnitude. TBD
  6. Make a list of the rotational velocities of all G stars located within 30 pc. Plot their rotational velocities vs their x-ray fluxes. Is their a correlation? TBD
  7. Make a list of the 20 brightest O-type stars that are not known to be binaries. Plot their x-ray vs bolometric luminosities (or fluxes). Is there a correlation that is statistically significant? TBD
  8. Plot the 50 brightest members of the Hyades Cluster in Galactic coordinates. Overplot (in different colors) their X-ray and infrared fluxes. TBD
  9. The young star T Tauri (the prototype of the T Tauri class of stars) is now known to be multiple. When was this discovered and at what wavelength was this discovery made? TBD