Blog

Upcoming Outreach Talk on Mars

 

 

Very happy that I got invited to a high school in Hangzhou, to give an outreach talk on Mars.

 

I will give a brief introduction to Mars, followed by a demonstration of the process to land a lander/rover onto the Mars surface.

 

The landing process is rather complicated, but to me is also very beautiful. No wonder I was told that I am a nerd.

 

I do have an engineer's mind. Haha

 

1 Sept 2020

@Nanjing

 

 

New Singularity Container

 

So I further include pulsar software such as PSRCHIVE, DSPSR, and SIGPROC into the singularity container.

 

Just updated the description inside the GitHub.

 

I worked too hard these two days but indeed made much progress.

 

Working with some FAST data now. Hopefully, I can find something from the data. Going through each stage with my own codes is a good feeling.

 

Good night.

 

22 Aug 2020

@Nanjing

 

 

ASKAP

Want to know how ASKAP can detect FRB and localize it at the same time. Need to read more. 

 

Very much.

 

31 July 2020

@Nanjing

 

 

How to write an observation proposal

 

Inspired by Prof. Keping Qiu’s talk at the FAST User Training Program 2020, I summarise the information for my future reference.

 

Resources

- Observatory website - or technical information & past projects

- Read CfP (Call for proposal) very carefully 

- Talk to experienced people

- Contact the helpdesk

 

Preparation

- Capabilities (receivers, backends, observing modes)

- Special requirements (e.g. local contact?)

- Suitable for your experiments? (e.g. require too much time; technically too challenging?)

- Detailed literature research on the scientific question addressed

- Check the data archive to avoid repetitive observations

- Communicate early with collaborators to receive feedback both scientifically and technically

 

Write:

1. Scientific justification— Why do you want to do it? Why is it so important?

            

Para1: a literature review

  Current problems

  Reference included 

  Importance of tackling this problem

 

Para2: Justify your sample/target selection

  How would this sample/target advance this scientific topic

  Any observation before? Useful for this one too?

 

Para3: You existing data/research/observations

  Have you got any existing data?

  How will you use your existing data with this observation?

  Experience with this current telescope.

  If you have unpublished papers linked with previously related observations, provide some preliminary results.

 

Para4: planned observations & immediate objectives

  Detailed observation plan

  Scientific impact (no matter whether you would detect it or not )

  Simulation or theoretical predictions as help?

  Have a good data analysis plan? (experience? personnel?)

 

2. Technical justification

 

Para5-6

  frontend, backend, observing modes

  why this frequency/spectral/spatial resolution/sky coverage

  Time request

  Feasibility of your experiment (especially when your experiment is quite radical)  

 

Improve the proposal

 

Ask for comments on your draft from collaborators

Avoiding any language/ wording issues or ugly figures/tables

Don’t break the page limit!

Make your proposal easily understandable to an astronomer who is not an expert in your area

 

Submit the proposal

 

Submit the proposal well before the deadline

Send a copy of the submitted version to collaborators

 

 

30 July 2020

@Nanjing

 

 

PRESTO V3 Singularity

 

 

It took me a while to get it done. 

 

Please read https://github.com/zoeye859/presto_v3_singularity/ for what I have done and how to use it.

 

With this Singularity, you should be able to use presto to find FRBs without experiencing the painful installation process.

 

I mean, I failed at least twice: one time with the PGPLOT configuration problem that I cannot solve (PRESTO V3); then I tried to install V2 but failed again.

 

All paid back.

 

 

16 July 2020

@Nanjing

 

 

Restart writing blogs

 

So I am back to research after some life chaos. 

 

I record my daily research progress in Evernote as a habit now. And I will paste some useful stuff here.

 

For example, I recently installed presto (finally!) and seal it inside a singularity container. Would love to list the installation steps and how I seal it inside the singularity container.

 

Anyway, I am very happy to be back in research.

 

Many thanks for people who have supported me since Winter 2019. And luckily, for those who know that I come from Hubei Province, all my family members survived from the first wave of COVID-19 happening in Hubei, China. 

 

I do feel stressed by not making enough progress since my graduation. It will be good.

 

 

16 July 2020

@Nanjing

 

 

Possibility to use BaSC into exoplanet searching?

 

Read papers about the detection of PDS 70 b and PDS 70 c. Feeling very excited - though it was not the ALMA that detected these two exoplanets (may still under formation), ALMA results clearly showed these two little ones.  In that case, BaSC may help to find exoplanets using ALMA. There may be a very exciting era to find exoplanets using radio interferometers, at the moment, mainly ALMA, which operates at a very small radio wavelength, therefore very good resolution. 

 

Also contacted Peter for comments.

 

October 17, 2019
@Changsha

 

 

 

 

SSL Certificate

 

I showed my website to my friend and found that my website is marked as insecure in browsers. I was worried and then found out that I needed an SSL certificate. It took me about an hour or two to apply and install the SSL Certificate. I experienced a name mismatch error, then reinstalled the certificate. Luckily, everything worked out! I was so excited to see the green lock shown!

 

Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, a very traditional festival in China. I wish you all the best!

 

 

September 12, 2019
@Changsha

 

 

First Blog

 

This is a very fresh start, and I am very proud of myself. I need to make efforts to improve myself to become a better researcher. I am very grateful that I have so many people around me to offer support.

Things that I will put on the Blog section on my website:

  •  Exciting knowledge 

  •  Newly learned computational tricks

  •  Random research ideas

  •  My understanding of some relevant paper

  •  Exciting research experience

  •  My own research results

I hope I will have many exciting research challenges to come!

 

 

 

September 11, 2019
@Changsha