Day two

Today was primarily a reading day. I started off going over the papers initially assigned to get a better grasp of the simulations, specifically Governato, Mayer & Brook, 2008 and Zolotov et al, 2009. I also kept moving through Governato et al, 2007 to learn more about the specific feedback algorithms used. I also got through a few more chapters of the LSST Science Book, and (barely) started TeXing up a little piece on what I know about the surveys. Now I have a few more things to do:

1) Keep playing around with Tipsy

2) read the paper Horizontal Branch Stars: Observations, Theory and Insights into the Formation of the Galaxy to learn about blue Horizontal Branch stars. I'm hoping to find out their relative abundance and whether that is a function of age or metallicity (and if so, how). This will give a standard to compare the simulation data to.

3) Start analyzing a simulation in IDL (h277) and answer some basic questions to get familiarized with the data; i) what COMP number corresponds to which component, ii) are the stars centered on (0,0,0) and iii) is the angular momentum aligned with the x, y or z axes.

Then the real fun begins.

This should keep me occupied while Beth's out of town (at least).